I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille!

[kickaha]

For the last couple of years, I've been working on and off with a project that my advisor and I started called FaceTop. (Honestly, I can't remember if I've posted about it here or not.) It's a transparent video overlay that goes over your GUI. The video is a live feed from a webcam of... you, sitting at the computer. You have a colored rubber thimble on your finger. When you move your finger in view of the camera, the cursor follows. It's a mouse replacement, essentially.

The neat things about it? It's cheap (a $100 FireWire camera is all you need), it's easy (no spatial registration, the camera just has to see you, and you have to be able to see the screen), and it's fast (30fps fullscreen with transparency). It's also Mac only for honest to god technical reasons, but I'll not gloat about that here.

Oh yes I will. Gloat, gloat, gloat.

It can also be used for two-way video conferencing. Both video streams are composited, and overlaid on the GUI, and either can control the cursor. Why? Collaborative document editing. Instead of saying on the phone "Okay, look at paragraph 3 on pg 6, and there's a typo in the fourth word of line 2... yes there is... no, the paragraph *after* that one. Yeah, the third *full* paragraph," etc, etc, etc, you just point and say "There." It works beautifully, and we've had several papers published on it, as well as a patent about to be officially and finally filed for real. I'm co-inventor. Whoo!

Anyway, in the past week the media has gotten ahold of it. We've popped up on Gizmodo,com, Technology Review News, ACM TechNews, and a flurry of weblogs all saying "Coooooooool..."

And I just got done with an interview with Wired News.

*boggle*

Do a google for 'FaceTop' and watch the explosion of a meme in real-time. :) Very, very bizarre.

And no, this has nothing to do with my dissertation, more's the pity.

Comments

[keridwen.livejournal.com]

That's very, very cool.

Heh. I remember when you convinced your Prof. that Macs were, indeed, a Good Thing(TM). Silliness abounds. But I'm really glad that you guys were able to make this thing work.

I'll look for your interview in Wired. ;)

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Actually, it'll be on wired.com, not in print in the paper magazine... the magazine was spun off a couple of years ago, so we don't get the glossy paper treatment. But *still*... I'll take it. ;)

Waiting for the /. article now... :D

[ginkgo.livejournal.com]

You so rock, babycakes. :)

[f-x.livejournal.com]

That's awesome!

Need a beta tester?

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

As soon as we're allowed to distribute anything, I'll let you know. :)

[bosphot.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Congrats!

Sweeeeet!

[flinx.livejournal.com]

What's the word on the patent policy at the school? (thinking with my wallet, of course...)

But that's awesome. You're becoming a web celeb! For something meaningful! Woo-hoo!

[golemkennels.livejournal.com]

Wow.
Good job - so cool and I hope I get to see an example sometime. Sounds Like I will in the local mall eventually...


Cute, and smart too, eh?

[arthane.livejournal.com]

Woohoo! That's a very cool project, I have to say.

Very cool

[hyrkanian.livejournal.com]

Congrats, it sounds like a lot of fun. I saw the link to the /. article on labrown's journal and read it.

Unfortunately I'd probably be homeless and single if I bought a Mac to try it out on.

LOL

*joking!*