
Don't Touch Ya Face - dkobran
https://www.donttouchyaface.com/
======
aeturnum
Cool project, but what got me to comment was the really stellar FAQ on the
landing page.

I think it's really hard to strike capture the tone of software in written
descriptions of those pieces of software. Coding projects that are programmed
in an experimental and light-hearted way can end up being spoken about in
somber tones that lose that sense of fun and playfulness.

~~~
sramsay
I got a _much-needed_ laugh out of it.

Especially:

> My dude, I can barely make a website, much less a mini NSA.

~~~
sevkih
> For the love of God, please listen to doctors/The CDC/Goop product
> descriptions before me.

------
anotherevan
This immediately reminded me of the joke about a tourist talking with an old
Australian bushman. The original rambles on a bit, but the shorter version is
the tourist asks if he knows any bushman remedies for chapped lips.

“What you do, mate,” replies the bushman, “Is lift up your horses tail, and
kiss him straight on the bum.”

“And that fixes your chapped lips?!” exclaims the tourist.

“No,” replied the bushman, “But it stops you licking them.”

~~~
gridspy
This joke is so effective that just reading it makes me stop wanting to lick
my lips!

------
ukyrgf
The URL of the actual app is terrifying. I was certain the site had been
hijacked when it redirected to the most suspicious looking URL imaginable at
the domain "drv.tw": [https://lzdmsmujepoc2xlgp13srg-
on.drv.tw/Don%27tTouchYaFace/...](https://lzdmsmujepoc2xlgp13srg-
on.drv.tw/Don%27tTouchYaFace/www.DontTouchYaFace.com.html) (HN shortens this,
but I think the real kicker is the '.com.html' at the end)

~~~
kingbirdy
From the 3rd question of the FAQ:

> Why does it open in a new tab with a different URL?

> Setting up websites is hard and I got frustrated and you're not paying
> anything, so...

~~~
ukyrgf
I have no idea why someone would go through all this trouble when you can just
drag and drop a folder onto Netlify or Zeit.

~~~
nothrabannosir
Because setting up websites is hard and they got frustrated.

~~~
brianpan
And we're not paying anything.

------
5cott0
> I looked up your code because you don't know how to hide it and have made my
> own cloned app for some reason. Nobody liked you in high school, I'm sorry
> you had to find out this way.

I really felt this.

~~~
djhaskin987
I think a disproportionately large percentage of us did, you're in good
company.

~~~
yjftsjthsd-h
Don't be absurd. I knew nobody liked me in HS _long_ before reading this;)

------
lanewinfield
We made this a week ago!
[https://donottouchyourface.com](https://donottouchyourface.com)

~~~
marcsto2
I guess we all had the same idea. My wife and I built
[https://www.donttouchface.com](https://www.donttouchface.com)

~~~
dmix
Congrats, you've made the least annoying one so far!

A simple beep is all we need, people. Also it seems more accurate than the
others few linked here it seems, the face part is more narrowly detected, the
other two went off whenever my hand was in the frame at all for some reason.
This one only beeps when I actually put my hand on my face. (Not to be super
critical of toy projects)

~~~
lanewinfield
We tried a lot of different strategies in—

pre-made models

hand and face detection separately

training the algo yourself

and it felt like the last one was the strongest (which is what we released).
The one we built is as strong as the training you give it—it shouldn't be
going off if your hand is at all in the frame.

------
joe_the_user
Being on the spectrum of ADHD, I'm pretty certain that it's going to be
absolutely impossible for me to stop touching my and suspect that small
nervous habits of this sort just aren't going to be worked out of a
significant portion of the population even if I could stop myself somehow.

I'm fortunate I can work remotely. Social distancing is a thousand times
easier for me than stopping nervous habits, include touching my face. I
suspect such actions are on the interface between conscious control and reflex
actions.

I suppose the authorities should still keep telling us to stop doing but I
think planners should pretty much assume this is not a barrier that's going to
stop the disease.

~~~
gaogao
As a fellow person with ADHD, I naturally socially distance myself!

~~~
hnzix
_Some_ people may call this the apocalypse. My GAD calls it a pleasure.

------
nevi-me
This is interesting, but I have a serious question to ask;

Does it work on black people's faces? I can have a hand on my face but it
would still predict otherwise, it seems like I have to go out of my way to
obstruct my face for it to pick it up, and even that with a lot of false
negatives.

------
ISL
I have addressed this issue with a simple hardware innovation: the Facespoon.

Find a clean object with a well-defined handle. Use the non-handle end of the
object to touch/scratch/adjust/manipulate your face. Clean the object
regularly.

Working from home, I've designated a kitchen cooking spoon on my desk for this
dedicated task. Plastic appears to better than wood, as it is more-readily
cleaned and does not absorb facial oils.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
> Plastic appears to better than wood //

Do your own due diligence on this one, but a few years ago I think it was
reported that, surprisingly, wooden chopping boards are better than plastic
ones (which had been assumed to be better as they're less absorbent, etc.) and
actually combat bacteria.

Given Covid19 is reported to - unusually for a virus - last up to a week
[check a proper source!] or so on hard surfaces then maybe in this situation
wood might also be better???

>"A study by the Food Research Institute in Wisconsin (Ak et al. 1994a and b)
compared wooden and plastic boards and came to the surprising result that wood
possesses substantially better hygienic characteristics than plastic. After
contaminating different cutting boards with bacteria, significantly fewer
viable bacteria could regularly be recovered from wooden boards than from
plastic boards. These results were confirmed by Gehrig et al. (2000) in a
recent study investigating hygienic aspects of wooden and plastic boards
regarding the risk of food contamination. Previous studies assumed that the
detected reduction in bacterial numbers on the wood surfaces is caused by an
antibacterial effect of wood based on several physical and chemical properties
of wood. The porous structure and hygroscopic characteristics of wood could
remove the water needed by the bacteria for their vital functions and
multiplication and thus kill them (Kampelmacher et al. 1971, Schulz 1995). In
addition, substances present in wood (e.g. polyphenoles) could be responsible
for an antibacterial effect (Willaman 1955, Biswas et al. 1981, Laks and
McKaig 1988, Field et al. 1989, Schra¨gle and Mu¨ller 1990, Scalbert 1991,
Mu¨ller et al. 1995)"

>from DOI 10.1007/s00107-002-0300-6, "Wooden boards affecting the survival of
bacteria?"

~~~
samatman
The presumptive mechanism (dehydration due to the hygroscopic action of wood)
may not apply consistently to viruses.

Viruses have a lipid outer layer, but no metabolism of their own. Sometimes
dehydration will break the capsule, sometimes it won't.

Soap is usually quite effective due to saponification physically destroying
the virus's capsule, fwiw.

------
Regardsyjc
This is awesome. Does anyone have a tutorial they recommend for building
something like this (preferably in Python)?

[https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com](https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com)
is awesome and it looks super easy to use - but any tutorials if you wanted to
learn it the harder way via OpenCV or Darknet?

I found this tutorial from fast.ai but haven't been able to check it out yet:
[https://course.fast.ai/videos/?lesson=1](https://course.fast.ai/videos/?lesson=1)

------
wirrbel
With all the talk about not touching your face, I fear that sometimes this is
overemphasized for Corona virus. It is a virus with a viral envelope, and
viruses with viral envelopes are especially unstable outside of the human
body. Keeping your distance to people, not staying long in rooms where
droplets may floating in the air carrying virus is just as important if not
more.

Also, after washing your hands with soap, viral counts should be so low that
there isn't a danger of infecting yourself anymore, so the situation where you
sit at your laptop isn't especially dangerous IF YOU WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE
USING IT (and possibly wiping the keyboard down with a wrung-out cloth that
was soaked in soap water).

~~~
ajross
None of that is well-established. It might be right, but there hasn't been
time to do the science. Certainly facial contact is a known vector for many
viruses, including other coronavirus genera.

This is a crisis. We have to work things via defense in depth and hope that it
is enough. So we wash our hands, isolate, wear masks where available, and _we
don 't touch our face_.

Please don't try to finesse a pandemic just to seem smart on the internet. No
one knows whether you're right or not.

Seriously, just don't touch your face.

~~~
buzzkillington
If you want to actually stop the spread of airborne diseases you should wear a
full face respirator. The expensive models are extremely comfortable and can
be worn indefinitely.

Here's hoping they become acceptable.

------
CCoffie
I'm pretty sure you just made more people touch their face...

------
spectramax
Dr. Michael Osterholm was on Joe Rogan's podcast explaining in detail how this
virus spreads [1]

\- Washing hands and not touching face is inconclusive but it makes sense to
keep up the hygiene. That's not the primary means of how this virus spreads.

\- Virus primarily spreads via airborne means, simply by breathing (not even
coughing or sneezing) is enough. It stays suspended in air (you can imagine
the negligible weight of a 0.1um particle compared to the fluid mechanical
forces from circulating air).

\- N95 masks (contrarily to the popular myth) are the most effective means of
stopping the spread. Shortage of masks for hospital workers is an orthogonal
issue.

I urge everyone of you to watch this interview and to be more informed.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw)

------
swader999
Don't breathe either: The research, which was carried out by scientists from
the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and UCLA, suggests
it's possible for the virus to spread through the air as well as through the
touching of contaminated surfaces.

"Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of HCoV-19 is
plausible, as the virus can remain viable in aerosols for multiple hours and
on surfaces up to days," researchers wrote in the study's abstract.

[https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/03/11/Coronavirus-
can-...](https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/03/11/Coronavirus-can-live-in-
air-for-3-hours-on-surfaces-for-2-3-days/8121583963038/)

~~~
sb057
Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota said as much on JRE
yesterday.[1]

Obviously touching your face won't decrease your chances of catching
coronavirus (or any other disease), but the reason this strain is wrecking so
much havoc is because of how transmissible it is, especially through simple
breathing. The implication being, if you get it on your hands, you've almost
certainly already breathed it in.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw)

------
lxe
Done with
[https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/train/image](https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/train/image)
I bet. Love this thing. You can make your own 'Don't Touch Ya Face' in a few
minutes!

------
jascii
With the pandemic of working from home, maybe we need an app to help us stop
touching, eh, _other_ bits of our anatomy?

------
crusso
Great idea. Also, after people become trained to change their behavior when
hearing that Ralph "I'm in danger", start playing it periodically when people
are on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

The world will be a better place.

------
elicash
Here's another idea:

Start wearing a bracelet or something else to give yourself a little reminder
when you are reaching for your face. I have no idea whether bracelets
themselves are germ traps, of course.

~~~
kevsim
Here you go: [https://immutouch.com/](https://immutouch.com/)

~~~
elicash
Honestly, all I need is a string.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Elastic band?

------
emmelaich
Also, wash your hands.

[https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-10/how-south-east-
asia-i...](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-10/how-south-east-asia-is-
using-pop-songs-to-combat-coronavirus/12038228)

------
other_herbert
This is cool but the downside of having a dell xps is that the camera is
basically always looking at my hands :D... works fine if I'm not using the
keyboard :)... or if I got up and actually went to my desk and that sort of
thing..

~~~
oogetyboogety
Yeah we need a nosecam model

------
zmmmmm
A bit tangential, but I have a mild concern that the focus on hand / face
transmission which is undoubtably valid may be encouraging people to overlook
the fact that covid-19 is _highly_ transmissable without any contact through
air / droplets. Many cases have been documented where people were infected
without contact. To avoid infection, you need to avoid being in close
proximity, especially in enclosed environments, with large numbers of people.

~~~
prox
The guidelines talk about 1-2 meters distance and 15 minutes of presence in
the same space. This makes public transport and venues big transmission
vectors for that reason. Someone who sneezes unprotected will no doubt widen
that area by a factor.

------
marcsto2
My wife and I built something similar. Take a look:
[https://www.DontTouchFace.com](https://www.DontTouchFace.com)

------
GuiA
It's easy to trick by just having your hand anywhere in front of your face,
even a foot away. Is this something current image classifier architecture
could address with more data? It seems like it'd be hard to tell whether a
hand is large and on a face, or small and far away from the face unless there
is some sort of depth estimation going on (based on cues like shadows).

~~~
lilbobbytables
Is this a problem? Do you find yourself waving at your webcam much?

~~~
lkbm
I find that my hand goes between my webcam and my face reasonably often.

It's still a brilliant idea and I love it, regardless of its limitations.

------
devin
Maybe someone said in the comments somewhere, but it kind of makes me chuckle
to sit here testing it by... well... touching my damn face.

------
fofoni
I've touched my face while testing the app way more than I would have if I
weren't aware of the app at all.

~~~
gmanley
I'd say a big part of that is just you're more aware that your doing it. I bet
the total count is similar.

------
zwieback
didn't even work on my machine but upvoted for FAQ

~~~
spdebbarma
Give it a minute or two, after you press start. Also, try a different browser.

------
foobarbecue
See also [http://donttouchyourface.net/](http://donttouchyourface.net/) from a
few days ago. This could actually be an interesting case study in different
implementations of the same tool.

------
andrewnc
I love it. I built something similar a few days ago.

[https://twitter.com/andrew_n_carr/status/1237413723658055680...](https://twitter.com/andrew_n_carr/status/1237413723658055680?s=20)

------
irrational
>please listen to Goop product descriptions before me.

LOL - the FAQ is worth the price of admission

------
waterhouse
How about this solution: If your face itches or something, use the _back_ of
your hand to rub it? Or some other part of your body that you can be confident
isn't used to touch anything potentially contaminated.

~~~
aengvs
Problem with this is I'm now using the back of my hand or other parts of my
body to open doors, press elevator buttons etc...

~~~
waterhouse
Partition your body: some parts used for some things, others for other things.
Use an elbow or knee to push buttons, use the long sleeve of a jacket as a
mini-glove if you need to grasp a handle. Or wear gloves that you take off
once you're inside.

------
faust42069
For those looking for an app that works while you use other apps:
[https://foundationlabs.io/face-no-touchy](https://foundationlabs.io/face-no-
touchy)

------
gourneau
Hey Y'all, I wrote something similar yesterday using Tensorflow.js
[https://face-palm.netlify.com/](https://face-palm.netlify.com/)

------
wesleyfsmith
The FAQs are amazing haha

------
faust42069
My app works while you use other apps [https://foundationlabs.io/face-no-
touchy](https://foundationlabs.io/face-no-touchy)

------
j88439h84
This also seems really useful for people trying to stop biting their nails and
other habits. Any chance you'd share the code?

------
jacobsenscott
I touched my face many times from many different positions to test it out.
Mostly it didn't detect it. But fun times.

------
cafed00d
the funny thing is: this website made me touch my face wayyyy more than I
would have otherwise today.

------
muzani
Is it just me or does opening this site in another tab on Firefox not run the
warnings?

------
mkskm
Have you considered open sourcing this so it can be ported to other platforms?

------
qntmfred
Now do it for bad posture plz

~~~
rsanek
Take a look at
[https://github.com/z1lc/HeadUp2](https://github.com/z1lc/HeadUp2) \-- it's
basic but it works OK

------
ricardobeat
The app fails to even ask for camera permission in Firefox, and simply dies.

~~~
lkbm
It worked for me. Could you have it set to Never Ask? (I'm using Firefox
Nightly on Mac OS.)

------
r_harriso
Not bad. Confuses the trim on my robe for a hand. Pretty funny overall.

------
thoraway1010
Like it!

Maybe train people not to touch their face and in higher risk situations
(think public transit with lots of touching or bigger group events) add a mask
as another layer of protection and a reminder.

------
closeparen
This is blocked by my employer's OpenDNS profile as a security threat. I'd
chalk it up to a false positive but I've not seen that happen in years. Be
careful.

------
wldcordeiro
Security warning page for the certificate?

------
sigjuice
How is this supposed to work? Most people have carved their webcams out of
their laptop and put tape over the hole :)

------
frequentnapper
too slow. told me like 1 minute later after i touched the face if at all...

------
rronalddas
Great man!! Love the FAQ

------
jay754
thanks for the laugh man. needed it today

------
forkexec
Or I Breaka Ya Face

And if Ya Cougha ina Public,

I Beata Ya to Deatha ina Alley.

Poe's law disclaimer: ;-P

~~~
forkexec
HN: the anti-matter doppelgängers of comedians.

------
bahndoos
I love myself, I want you to love me....

------
echelon
Unrelated to the content of the page, I'm really starting to hate the push for
SSL everywhere.

This website has misconfigured certs and because of that my browser blocks it.
Chrome is corp IT-managed and has no opt-out, whereas Firefox lets me accept
the certs, but it's ultimately been blocked by our DNS/firewall for the same
reason.

I really hate SSL. The majority of informational sites do not need it. I
understand that it doesn't protect my privacy, but it doesn't frankly matter
that I'm accessing an informational page about Coronavirus. If people are
willing to give up their privacy to adtech platforms like Google and Facebook,
the information about what websites you read is already out there.

I feel like Google has just created a deeper moat by pushing for SSL.

People complain about Kubernetes, but that's infra for large orgs that you
shouldn't opt into unless you need it. SSL is being forced on the small guys
who can't handle the complexity nor automation. It's not fair.

~~~
jiggawatts
What are you talking about? It's using TLS 1.3 and is signed by the GlobalSign
root CA! It's using the most compatible RSA 2048 crypto, and all the
parameters look valid.

Maybe you are a victim of a man-in-the-middle attack _right now_ and the
"stupid warnings" you're blithely clicking through are _informing you of
this_.

~~~
emmelaich
For me, GlobalSign lack of / failing to get GlobalSign _intermediate_ certs
pops up surprisingly often.

~~~
jiggawatts
That's typically a proxy problem. The intermediate certificates are
automatically downloaded by all decent X.509 clients such as Windows, Firefox,
or Chrome.

However, if the proxy is occasionally dropping requests or replacing them with
one of those stupid "log on to the proxy here" pages, then the chain discovery
will fail randomly and you'll get these issues.

It's also common in environments where the security trolls have blocked HTTP
(as in, TCP port 80) because they think it's "insecure", but this just causes
X.509 issues like this because it uses _only_ HTTP and never HTTPS for CRLs,
OCSP, and intermediate CA certificate downloads.

~~~
emmelaich
Thanks, that's great info.

