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

unclack.app

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

#171

Post by smcleod »

apetresc wrote: post #59
smcleod wrote: post #31

For anyone that's tried them both - how does it compare to krisp.ai? I've been using Krisp since the start of 2020 and have been really happy with both its audio performance and that it doesn't seem to use excessive CPU/GPU, not to mention that it doesn't require nvidia hardware. Krisp is a paid, closed source product however.

I'm almost certain that Unclack isn't doing any audio-processing magic. It simply knows when you're typing because, you know, keyboard are part of your computer, and mutes when enough keys are pressed in a short enough window of time. It shouldn't use any significant resources at all.

Oh, that's disappointing, I'm often talking while typing to take notes.

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

#173

Post by ketamine__ »

robotsquidward wrote: post #148
joelschw wrote: post #3

Is it Big Sur only?

Unfortunately yes... I'm using some of the latest SwiftUI API's to build the UI that I haven't back-ported for Catalina just yet. Of course my work laptop is also locked on Catalina, so I kind of played myself there as well! I'll definitely consider adding that backwards compatibility in the future if possible.

I'm on Mojave.

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

#174

Post by peterkos »

franky47 wrote: post #94
oceliker wrote: post #60

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.

No need to go through the speakers, you could detect keystrokes, map them to transients in the recorded audio stream and use a noise gate to reduce their volume (at the cost of a little added latency). Bonus point: this would allow you to speak and type at the same time with minimal reduction of speech comprehension, especially if using a multi-band noise gate (that acts on various frequency bands independently). It'…

Alternatively, throw some AI in there (https://krisp.ai/) :P

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

#175

Post by sjwright »

DontGiveTwoFlux wrote: post #61
oceliker wrote: post #60

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.

Unfortunately the percussive clacks from a keyboard are probably too broad spectrum to neutralize. These transient waveforms are hard to beat.

You'd be amazed what can be done with the latest machine learning algorithms. But setting those aside, you could still get 90% of the way with some relatively basic stuff.

I'd start by identifying the presence of speech—when the user isn't currently speaking, trivial muting is all that's needed. Then the only challenge would be to squelch keyboard noise that overlaps speech. If keyboard input monitoring has enough temporal precision, even the most trivial volume dip (and perhaps a band pass filter) would be a win.

Keyboard input monitoring could also be used to continuously tune the algorithm to the loudness of the keyboard noise. Any key press occurring in sonic isolation could be used. Then when there's keyboard noise which overlaps speech, the algorithm will know how much to squelch.

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

#177

Post by franky47 »

peterkos wrote: post #174
franky47 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No need to go through the speakers, you could detect keystrokes, map them to transients in the recorded audio stream and use a noise gate to reduce their volume (at the cost of a little added latency). Bonus point: this would allow you to speak and type at the same time with minimal reduction of speech comprehension, especially if using a multi-band noise gate (that acts on various frequency bands independently). It'…

Alternatively, throw some AI in there ( https://krisp.ai/ ) :P

I'm not a fan of throwing AI at any problem, especially when it concerns signal processing. There is a vast range of great algorithms that can be composed to manipulate audio in all kinds of way, and (human) learning about them is fascinating.

I'm afraid of a direction in tech where ML becomes the easy option, and we relinquish control of the technical expertise of the work being done. All for a handful of VC dollars.

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

#178

Post by serpico7456 »

I wonder why the developer didn't notarize this app? Seems especially relevant since there could be keylogging concerns. You can bypass the warning message, but not a good first impression for users: "Unclack can’t be opened because Apple cannot check it for malicious software. This software needs to be updated."

I really like the app concept!

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

#179

Post by Closi »

Theodores wrote: post #112
oceliker wrote: post #60

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…

> Under each key there should be a small piezo electric speaker to make a key click noise for reasons of haptic feedback.

That's not haptic feedback - Haptic feedback is the kinaesthetic / touch feeling of the keyboard.

People are trying to engineer keys that are quieter, however they don't have the same haptic feel. The difference between cherry browns and cherry clears is huge!

If someone gets a switch that feels like the brown but is totally silent, they will take the market, but it's hard to see how that is possible. The keys have to be stopped by something to get the correct feel, current attempts to use o-rings create a different feel. It's hard to see how you can do that and be totally silent.

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

#180

Post by gxnxcxcx »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #43
steerablesafe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certain model M keyboards have speakers in them, possibly for audio feedback for the otherwise quiet keyboard. /s

Please don't post sarcasm. You can make an equivalent statement ("it almost seems...", "I can imagine...") without the needless twist into a false/sarcastic formulation that just makes your post needlessly harder to understand.

Good thing "/s" tagged remarks barely qualify as sarcasm, then.
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