Re: Feature proposal: Alternative input system based on low-cost webcam

[meg ford <meg387 gmail com>]

Hi,

> I think we are missing the important bit here.
>
> Tracking your head with a webcam to drive a mouse results in a bad
> experience. It doesn't work even remotely well.

Some users already find this feature/application really useful.

> Someone will, in the future, figure out how to do this properly and
> then it won't be called an accessibility feature but something
> everyone will want to use.

It would be good to have it for general use for the feature. But for the
moment it is just a specific accessibility tool.

I think that this raises an important point about inclusion of accessibility features: they are often very innovative, and they enhance the experiences of average users. For example, the on-screen keyboard can be adapted  for use on  touch-screen devices (at least this is my understanding from discussions I had with Nohemi Fernandez while we were in Montreal) - as long as someone extends the code :)

Since the trends right now are moving away from mouse use, it might be helpful/interesting to ask ourselves whether or how cameras can be used to replace them. Are there situations in which a camera would be more useful than a touch screen or track pad? Certainly it can be for certain users with disabilities, but we might want to explore other use cases, as well.

 

>
> I -think- that for this to work properly we'd need a bunch of things:
> first, we need to track not only head movement but also your eyes and
> several facial muscles so that we can have accurate tracking and hints
> about your

AFAIK, eViacam developers plans to add support for more facial gestures
in the future.

> intentions. Well, this requires cameras with resolutions much higher
> than VGA, which is the current standard for these. Then, someone needs
> to figure out how to track all these elements real-time with little
> cpu usage. As it is, we

With higher resolution cameras the behaviour would be better. But
please, read again the feature proposal name "Alternative input based
system based on *low-cost* webcam".

About performance, it is something that was always one of the priorities
for eViacam developers, and the reason that the configuration wizard
allows you to tweak so many parameters.

> can't even maintain a Mexican hat over ones head in Cheese without it
> lagging 3 seconds behind. And finally for this to work we'de need
> pretty good AI to be able to understand what you really want so that
> you don't end up sending a draft-mail just because you glanced at that
> gorgeous girl that just passed in front of you.

See my previous comment about performance.

I  also think that performance and facial gesture support will most likely improve faster if this is included and available to more users and developers.

Regards,

Meg Ford

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