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Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

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Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#171

Post by somethoughts »

hypernovawebant wrote: post #53
fheisler wrote: post #47

Author here! Pleasant surprise to find my project at the top of HN this morning with such positive feedback :) I'm happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions for future tweaks. Planning to make this into a customizable full-body game controller as well.

I'm actually already working on exactly that -- after trying it out on a couple of mini-games such as https://github.com/mristin/pop-that-balloon-desktop , https://github.com/mristin/cactusss-desktop and https://github.com/mristin/ski-leu-desktop . Please let me know if you want to join forces! You can find my contact information at: https://github.com/mristin . I figured that I don't mind my kids playing computer ga…

>> I figured that I don't mind my kids playing computer games as long as they move.

These could also be of interest for inspiration as well - basic idea this Youtuber is doing is to use console gamer joystick re-mapper hardware to convert joycon acceleration readings to button presses/button combos.

Can you Lose weight by playing Breath of the Wild? - Ringfit Controller Mod Explained Version

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYn3pWXMPF8

- Today we talk about the Ringfit Adventure controller mod for Zelda: Breath of the Wild. With this mod you can Exercise and play BotW at the same time.

I made a Ring Fit Adventure Mod for Mario Kart - Controller Bending

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNZSfunw85A

- Today on Controller Bending we mod the Ring fit controller to play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with. With this Ring-con mod you have to run to drive. Literally. Squeezing the ring-con activates items!

I'd imagine a lot of similar mods could be done via computer vision instead of using joycon accel readings.

I think the key would be to show up to a gaming console as a PS4/XBox controller instead of just a keyboard. I think there are Python libraries to do this [1] or just stick to Steam games that just need WASD controls. This allows you to tap into already huge library of high quality games and just focus on the OpenCV movement-> joystick button remapping part.

[1] Something like this - although it might be Windows only https://pypi.org/project/vgamepad/

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#172

Post by theandrewbailey »

perilunar wrote: post #141
anthomtb wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a native English speaker and never heard the word "semaphore" until taking CS classes in college. I cannot think of a common use for the term, unlike flag (see them all the time), register (do that with cars and schools) or stack (lots of those in my kitchen).

> register (do that with cars and schools) I would think computer register comes from the noun, not the verb — think cash register, not to register a car.

Or the covering of an air vent in a house.

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#174

Post by mft_ »

fencepost wrote: post #157

If you haven't done so already, see if you can connect with someone on the music side, particularly someone used to working with programmable sound buttons. The combination of your setup plus programmed sound macros could result in something fascinating.

It could certainly be used to trigger samples, combined with a looper[0][1]?

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vBwRfQbXkg

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc_SlqwtUXI

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#175

Post by varjag »

spit2wind wrote: post #72
fheisler wrote: post #47

Author here! Pleasant surprise to find my project at the top of HN this morning with such positive feedback :) I'm happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions for future tweaks. Planning to make this into a customizable full-body game controller as well.

I hope the video was dramatized and that you didn't actually hurt yourself! Rather than type every letter, a more efficient system is to represent sounds with keys. This is how stenography works. Each stoke of the keys is mapped to a series of characters; a letter, a grouping (such as 'sh' or 'ing'), or a complete phrase. Using such a system would allow one motion, for example for 'b', to map to a whole word, such as…

Can't code with that.

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#176

Post by fheisler »

wpietri wrote: post #158
fheisler wrote: post #47

Author here! Pleasant surprise to find my project at the top of HN this morning with such positive feedback :) I'm happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions for future tweaks. Planning to make this into a customizable full-body game controller as well.

Can I just say how much I liked the small details here? Like your choice of matching sweatbands, your jazz hands on the last symbol, your choice of pose for backspace, and the commit message, "Updated readme for pedantry". In your honor, I am performing the chef's-kiss gesture. (Which I hope you will include as you add emoji to your input device.)

Thank you! Although TBF I only merged the pedantic README update :D

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#177

Post by BrandoElFollito »

spit2wind wrote: post #72
fheisler wrote: post #47

Author here! Pleasant surprise to find my project at the top of HN this morning with such positive feedback :) I'm happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions for future tweaks. Planning to make this into a customizable full-body game controller as well.

I hope the video was dramatized and that you didn't actually hurt yourself! Rather than type every letter, a more efficient system is to represent sounds with keys. This is how stenography works. Each stoke of the keys is mapped to a series of characters; a letter, a grouping (such as 'sh' or 'ing'), or a complete phrase. Using such a system would allow one motion, for example for 'b', to map to a whole word, such as…

Completely unrelated, but your comment about stenography reminded me how our French president announced the COVID lockdown. It was a speech full of key information (some I could not hear because when he announced that the schools would close children erupted in yells) but that was not the best part.

The best part was that the speech was also signed for the deaf (that part was normal) and subtitled by a ..., well, ... stenography trainee.

He or she had all wrong, could not keep the speed, was mixing words and skipping whole parts. At some point they seem to have said to themselves "oh fuck it" and were typing more or less random words.

The whole country was with them, hoping that they will go on typing until the end (which they did). That was a memorable event and people actually learned about stenography and the fact that they apparently use a special keyboard in the form of a butterfly.

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#178

Post by fheisler »

zeta0134 wrote: post #160
fheisler wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting, I wonder if you could make a BodyChord or FaceChord setup using steno... Can you actually write code using a steno keyboard - as in, full access to all the usual symbols and modifiers - or would it just be for letters and basic punctuation?

Yes! Here is a really great talk on the state of doing so, with a fantastic realtime demo near the end. Mirabai live-codes using her Plover setup and narrates her thought process as she types out each command. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpv-Qb-dB6g

Amazing! The spoken demo reminds me of Victor Borge's Phonetic Punctuation. This would be such a great way to spend so much time getting slightly more efficient...

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#179

Post by fheisler »

pl90087 wrote: post #166
fheisler wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excellent, I'll reach out! Your balloon game looks a bit more like my face keyboard interface: https://github.com/everythingishacked/CheekyKeys#readme

For some idea sourcing, you guys could consider mapping to musical notes as well. Then each melody maps to a particular dance.

Hmm like a camera-based full-body theremin?

Re: Semaphore: A Full-Body Keyboard

#180

Post by fheisler »

timetraveller26 wrote: post #173

This is so cool. Any idea of the state of the art to do this with hand gestures? I wanted to do something like this but in the style of the Naruto seals used to perform ninjutsu.

I've seen lots of examples of interpreting sign language, but not general/customizable gestures. Should be very doable though!
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