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Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

unclack.app

111–120 of 193 posts

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#111
post #28
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Krisp uses ML to remove background noises like dog barking, crispy chips and such. Comes with a subscription model for unlimited use though. https://krisp.ai/

Any open source models available v

Here is a blog post that describes their approach https://towardsdatascience.com/real-time-noise-suppression-u...

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#112

I thought this was going to be an app that emits some kind of inverse sound through the laptop speakers to neutralize the keypress sound in real life. I wonder if that's possible.

Really keyboards should be engineered to be completely silent. Then, under each key there should be a small piezo electric speaker to make a key click noise for reasons of haptic feedback.

The app that goes with this should then be able to do things like make the keyboard sound like an Apple keyboard, or a classic IBM one or even a typewriter. It should be one of those features like how digital cameras have a speaker in them to make a fake shutter sound.

Since keyboards can already cost $200+ (Looking at you, Logitech) I don't think this is too much to ask, particularly if spill proof.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#113

The sentence explaining what it does has a typo which makes it confusing: > Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your keyboard while you type. This should say "mutes your _microphone_ while you type". You can't mute a keyboard

You can't mute a microphone. Mute is when something can't make a sound. You put a mic on mute.

So no, the text is correct. But obviously it's wrong. It doesn't ONLY mute the keyboard, it mutes everything for the person typing. The keyboard, the person, the squeaking chair.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#114

I thought this was going to be an app that emits some kind of inverse sound through the laptop speakers to neutralize the keypress sound in real life. I wonder if that's possible.

nvidia has some software that you can install if you have a compatible GPU which will take your webcam stream and blur your background or do other background effects. I suppose the challenge here would be to figure out which parts of the audio are the speaker's voice and which parts aren't, and remove the parts that aren't. If the visualization of the audio is such that you can discern speech from other audio, simila…

This exists already, it's called RTX Voice: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/nvidia-rtx-voice...

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#115
post #96

The sentence explaining what it does has a typo which makes it confusing: > Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your keyboard while you type. This should say "mutes your _microphone_ while you type". You can't mute a keyboard

Colloquially we say "mute yourself" or "mute this or that person," so it functions in that context.

Not colloquially. That's correct. Muting a mic is the colloquial expression. Think about what the word means: silence a thing. The mic does not make a sound.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#116
post #18

For the opposite effect, install `bucklespring` to enjoy an authentic classic clacking on any keyboard (most convenient on GNU/Linux, packaged for the biggest distros). “This project emulates the sound of my old faithful IBM Model-M space saver bucklespring keyboard while typing on my notebook, mainly for the purpose of annoying the [heck] out of my coworkers. Bucklespring runs as a background process and plays back…

Oh I loved my Model-M Space Saver, collected quite a few of them. Co-workers did sometimes comment/complain but not that often. I also had this habit of moving my cursor keys up/down/left/right in rapid/slow movements while I was thinking deeply on a problem. Combined with how loud and that it clicks on each downpress and clacks on release was quite the cacophony.

I have the full size Model-M I would use a Model-M Space Saver as my daily driver but the full size is too big for my desk while also using a mouse.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#117
post #96

The sentence explaining what it does has a typo which makes it confusing: > Unclack is the small but mighty Mac utility that mutes your keyboard while you type. This should say "mutes your _microphone_ while you type". You can't mute a keyboard

Colloquially we say "mute yourself" or "mute this or that person," so it functions in that context.

But you're not muting the keyboard, you're muting everything.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Active sound cancellation is an incredibly hard problem if you don't know the position of the listener.

The listener in this case is the microphone, so it has a fixed position related to the sound it would cancel (the keys). So the issue in this case is just that the sound keys produce varies.

I think the OC actually wanted active noise cancellation of the keys for their ears.

Re: Show HN: Unclack – a macOS app that mutes your microphone while you type

#119
post #102
post #18

For the opposite effect, install `bucklespring` to enjoy an authentic classic clacking on any keyboard (most convenient on GNU/Linux, packaged for the biggest distros). “This project emulates the sound of my old faithful IBM Model-M space saver bucklespring keyboard while typing on my notebook, mainly for the purpose of annoying the [heck] out of my coworkers. Bucklespring runs as a background process and plays back…

For folks like me who _had_ to hear this in action: https://youtu.be/Y7dKyGoqn9w?t=30

Oh, how I miss my 486, with a Model M, and running OS/2.
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