Cool project, but what got me to comment was the really stellar FAQ on the landing page.
I think it's really hard to strike capture the tone of software in written descriptions of those pieces of software. Coding projects that are programmed in an experimental and light-hearted way can end up being spoken about in somber tones that lose that sense of fun and playfulness.
This immediately reminded me of the joke about a tourist talking with an old Australian bushman. The original rambles on a bit, but the shorter version is the tourist asks if he knows any bushman remedies for chapped lips.
“What you do, mate,” replies the bushman, “Is lift up your horses tail, and kiss him straight on the bum.”
“And that fixes your chapped lips?!” exclaims the tourist.
“No,” replied the bushman, “But it stops you licking them.”
The URL of the actual app is terrifying. I was certain the site had been hijacked when it redirected to the most suspicious looking URL imaginable at the domain "drv.tw": https://lzdmsmujepoc2xlgp13srg-on.drv.tw/Don%27tTouchYaFace/... (HN shortens this, but I think the real kicker is the '.com.html' at the end)
drv.tw is a "Google Drive to web" proxy. It lets you stick an html file on google drive and have it on the internet.
I'm not sure how it pays for itself - after all, every byte served has to go through their servers, and running a service like this I can imagine a lot of illicit content gets posted too (requiring a lot of admin time).
> I looked up your code because you don't know how to hide it and have made my own cloned app for some reason.
Nobody liked you in high school, I'm sorry you had to find out this way.
I liked the way yours worked a little better than the dtyaface version. I like that yours allowed recording of samples since I have a three monitor setup and my laptop with camera is at a side angle. Your app handled side view face touching alerts quite well.
Being on the spectrum of ADHD, I'm pretty certain that it's going to be absolutely impossible for me to stop touching my and suspect that small nervous habits of this sort just aren't going to be worked out of a significant portion of the population even if I could stop myself somehow.
I'm fortunate I can work remotely. Social distancing is a thousand times easier for me than stopping nervous habits, include touching my face. I suspect such actions are on the interface between conscious control and reflex actions.
I suppose the authorities should still keep telling us to stop doing but I think planners should pretty much assume this is not a barrier that's going to stop the disease.
I'm in a similar situation. I have a very large number of physical tics (classified as "tic disorder" and not "Tourette's" because mine are all nonverbal), and on top of that I have a massive number of sensory processing issues that make me react very strongly to any sensation on my body so I'm constantly addressing them, and I've long since decided I'd rather get the coronavirus than not touch my face. The coronavirus cause me less discomfort than not touching my face, by multiple orders of magnitude.
This is interesting, but I have a serious question to ask;
Does it work on black people's faces? I can have a hand on my face but it would still predict otherwise, it seems like I have to go out of my way to obstruct my face for it to pick it up, and even that with a lot of false negatives.
I have addressed this issue with a simple hardware innovation: the Facespoon.
Find a clean object with a well-defined handle. Use the non-handle end of the object to touch/scratch/adjust/manipulate your face. Clean the object regularly.
Working from home, I've designated a kitchen cooking spoon on my desk for this dedicated task. Plastic appears to better than wood, as it is more-readily cleaned and does not absorb facial oils.
Do your own due diligence on this one, but a few years ago I think it was reported that, surprisingly, wooden chopping boards are better than plastic ones (which had been assumed to be better as they're less absorbent, etc.) and actually combat bacteria.
Given Covid19 is reported to - unusually for a virus - last up to a week [check a proper source!] or so on hard surfaces then maybe in this situation wood might also be better???
>"A study by the Food Research Institute in Wisconsin
(Ak et al. 1994a and b) compared wooden and plastic
boards and came to the surprising result that wood possesses substantially better hygienic characteristics than
plastic. After contaminating different cutting boards with
bacteria, significantly fewer viable bacteria could regularly
be recovered from wooden boards than from plastic
boards. These results were confirmed by Gehrig et al.
(2000) in a recent study investigating hygienic aspects of
wooden and plastic boards regarding the risk of food
contamination. Previous studies assumed that the detected
reduction in bacterial numbers on the wood surfaces is
caused by an antibacterial effect of wood based on several
physical and chemical properties of wood. The porous
structure and hygroscopic characteristics of wood could
remove the water needed by the bacteria for their vital
functions and multiplication and thus kill them
(Kampelmacher et al. 1971, Schulz 1995). In addition,
substances present in wood (e.g. polyphenoles) could be
responsible for an antibacterial effect (Willaman 1955,
Biswas et al. 1981, Laks and McKaig 1988, Field et al. 1989,
Schra¨gle and Mu¨ller 1990, Scalbert 1991, Mu¨ller et al.
1995)"
>from DOI 10.1007/s00107-002-0300-6, "Wooden boards affecting the survival of bacteria?"
This is awesome. Does anyone have a tutorial they recommend for building something like this (preferably in Python)?
https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com is awesome and it looks super easy to use - but any tutorials if you wanted to learn it the harder way via OpenCV or Darknet?
With all the talk about not touching your face, I fear that sometimes this is overemphasized for Corona virus. It is a virus with a viral envelope, and viruses with viral envelopes are especially unstable outside of the human body. Keeping your distance to people, not staying long in rooms where droplets may floating in the air carrying virus is just as important if not more.
Also, after washing your hands with soap, viral counts should be so low that there isn't a danger of infecting yourself anymore, so the situation where you sit at your laptop isn't especially dangerous IF YOU WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE USING IT (and possibly wiping the keyboard down with a wrung-out cloth that was soaked in soap water).
None of that is well-established. It might be right, but there hasn't been time to do the science. Certainly facial contact is a known vector for many viruses, including other coronavirus genera.
This is a crisis. We have to work things via defense in depth and hope that it is enough. So we wash our hands, isolate, wear masks where available, and we don't touch our face.
Please don't try to finesse a pandemic just to seem smart on the internet. No one knows whether you're right or not.
Dr. Michael Osterholm was on Joe Rogan's podcast explaining in detail how this virus spreads [1]
- Washing hands and not touching face is inconclusive but it makes sense to keep up the hygiene. That's not the primary means of how this virus spreads.
- Virus primarily spreads via airborne means, simply by breathing (not even coughing or sneezing) is enough. It stays suspended in air (you can imagine the negligible weight of a 0.1um particle compared to the fluid mechanical forces from circulating air).
- N95 masks (contrarily to the popular myth) are the most effective means of stopping the spread. Shortage of masks for hospital workers is an orthogonal issue.
I urge everyone of you to watch this interview and to be more informed.
Don't breathe either: The research, which was carried out by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, Princeton University and UCLA, suggests it's possible for the virus to spread through the air as well as through the touching of contaminated surfaces.
"Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of HCoV-19 is plausible, as the virus can remain viable in aerosols for multiple hours and on surfaces up to days," researchers wrote in the study's abstract.
Michael Osterholm of the University of Minnesota said as much on JRE yesterday.[1]
Obviously touching your face won't decrease your chances of catching coronavirus (or any other disease), but the reason this strain is wrecking so much havoc is because of how transmissible it is, especially through simple breathing. The implication being, if you get it on your hands, you've almost certainly already breathed it in.
Great idea. Also, after people become trained to change their behavior when hearing that Ralph "I'm in danger", start playing it periodically when people are on Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Start wearing a bracelet or something else to give yourself a little reminder when you are reaching for your face. I have no idea whether bracelets themselves are germ traps, of course.
Of course the killer app here is to use the accelorometer in a fitbit or a other fitness bracelet to play the danger ring tone on your phone if your arm comes up to your face.
This is cool but the downside of having a dell xps is that the camera is basically always looking at my hands :D... works fine if I'm not using the keyboard :)... or if I got up and actually went to my desk and that sort of thing..
A bit tangential, but I have a mild concern that the focus on hand / face transmission which is undoubtably valid may be encouraging people to overlook the fact that covid-19 is highly transmissable without any contact through air / droplets. Many cases have been documented where people were infected without contact. To avoid infection, you need to avoid being in close proximity, especially in enclosed environments, with large numbers of people.
The guidelines talk about 1-2 meters distance and 15 minutes of presence in the same space.
This makes public transport and venues big transmission vectors for that reason.
Someone who sneezes unprotected will no doubt widen that area by a factor.
[+] [-] aeturnum|6 years ago|reply
I think it's really hard to strike capture the tone of software in written descriptions of those pieces of software. Coding projects that are programmed in an experimental and light-hearted way can end up being spoken about in somber tones that lose that sense of fun and playfulness.
[+] [-] sramsay|6 years ago|reply
Especially:
> My dude, I can barely make a website, much less a mini NSA.
[+] [-] perk|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rohan1024|6 years ago|reply
How many times did you touch your face testing it?
[+] [-] anotherevan|6 years ago|reply
“What you do, mate,” replies the bushman, “Is lift up your horses tail, and kiss him straight on the bum.”
“And that fixes your chapped lips?!” exclaims the tourist.
“No,” replied the bushman, “But it stops you licking them.”
[+] [-] gridspy|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ukyrgf|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] londons_explore|6 years ago|reply
I'm not sure how it pays for itself - after all, every byte served has to go through their servers, and running a service like this I can imagine a lot of illicit content gets posted too (requiring a lot of admin time).
Why not just use github/lab pages?
[+] [-] kingbirdy|6 years ago|reply
> Why does it open in a new tab with a different URL?
> Setting up websites is hard and I got frustrated and you're not paying anything, so...
[+] [-] ivthreadp110|6 years ago|reply
Also terrifying... I mean, it's google... after all - Pretty sure my android device knows when I'm touching my face when it's turned off.
[+] [-] Thorrez|6 years ago|reply
result:
http://win2003.verylegit.link/15notice.dmg.docm
[+] [-] 5cott0|6 years ago|reply
I really felt this.
[+] [-] djhaskin987|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lanewinfield|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] fancyfredbot|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marcsto2|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ldenoue|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crusso|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrewnc|6 years ago|reply
Same...
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] eeZah7Ux|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joe_the_user|6 years ago|reply
I'm fortunate I can work remotely. Social distancing is a thousand times easier for me than stopping nervous habits, include touching my face. I suspect such actions are on the interface between conscious control and reflex actions.
I suppose the authorities should still keep telling us to stop doing but I think planners should pretty much assume this is not a barrier that's going to stop the disease.
[+] [-] amyjess|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gaogao|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nevi-me|6 years ago|reply
Does it work on black people's faces? I can have a hand on my face but it would still predict otherwise, it seems like I have to go out of my way to obstruct my face for it to pick it up, and even that with a lot of false negatives.
[+] [-] ISL|6 years ago|reply
Find a clean object with a well-defined handle. Use the non-handle end of the object to touch/scratch/adjust/manipulate your face. Clean the object regularly.
Working from home, I've designated a kitchen cooking spoon on my desk for this dedicated task. Plastic appears to better than wood, as it is more-readily cleaned and does not absorb facial oils.
[+] [-] pbhjpbhj|6 years ago|reply
Do your own due diligence on this one, but a few years ago I think it was reported that, surprisingly, wooden chopping boards are better than plastic ones (which had been assumed to be better as they're less absorbent, etc.) and actually combat bacteria.
Given Covid19 is reported to - unusually for a virus - last up to a week [check a proper source!] or so on hard surfaces then maybe in this situation wood might also be better???
>"A study by the Food Research Institute in Wisconsin (Ak et al. 1994a and b) compared wooden and plastic boards and came to the surprising result that wood possesses substantially better hygienic characteristics than plastic. After contaminating different cutting boards with bacteria, significantly fewer viable bacteria could regularly be recovered from wooden boards than from plastic boards. These results were confirmed by Gehrig et al. (2000) in a recent study investigating hygienic aspects of wooden and plastic boards regarding the risk of food contamination. Previous studies assumed that the detected reduction in bacterial numbers on the wood surfaces is caused by an antibacterial effect of wood based on several physical and chemical properties of wood. The porous structure and hygroscopic characteristics of wood could remove the water needed by the bacteria for their vital functions and multiplication and thus kill them (Kampelmacher et al. 1971, Schulz 1995). In addition, substances present in wood (e.g. polyphenoles) could be responsible for an antibacterial effect (Willaman 1955, Biswas et al. 1981, Laks and McKaig 1988, Field et al. 1989, Schra¨gle and Mu¨ller 1990, Scalbert 1991, Mu¨ller et al. 1995)"
>from DOI 10.1007/s00107-002-0300-6, "Wooden boards affecting the survival of bacteria?"
[+] [-] a-wu|6 years ago|reply
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_co...
[+] [-] robbrown451|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Regardsyjc|6 years ago|reply
https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com is awesome and it looks super easy to use - but any tutorials if you wanted to learn it the harder way via OpenCV or Darknet?
I found this tutorial from fast.ai but haven't been able to check it out yet: https://course.fast.ai/videos/?lesson=1
[+] [-] wirrbel|6 years ago|reply
Also, after washing your hands with soap, viral counts should be so low that there isn't a danger of infecting yourself anymore, so the situation where you sit at your laptop isn't especially dangerous IF YOU WASH YOUR HANDS BEFORE USING IT (and possibly wiping the keyboard down with a wrung-out cloth that was soaked in soap water).
[+] [-] ajross|6 years ago|reply
This is a crisis. We have to work things via defense in depth and hope that it is enough. So we wash our hands, isolate, wear masks where available, and we don't touch our face.
Please don't try to finesse a pandemic just to seem smart on the internet. No one knows whether you're right or not.
Seriously, just don't touch your face.
[+] [-] CCoffie|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spectramax|6 years ago|reply
- Washing hands and not touching face is inconclusive but it makes sense to keep up the hygiene. That's not the primary means of how this virus spreads.
- Virus primarily spreads via airborne means, simply by breathing (not even coughing or sneezing) is enough. It stays suspended in air (you can imagine the negligible weight of a 0.1um particle compared to the fluid mechanical forces from circulating air).
- N95 masks (contrarily to the popular myth) are the most effective means of stopping the spread. Shortage of masks for hospital workers is an orthogonal issue.
I urge everyone of you to watch this interview and to be more informed.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw
[+] [-] swader999|6 years ago|reply
"Our results indicate that aerosol and fomite transmission of HCoV-19 is plausible, as the virus can remain viable in aerosols for multiple hours and on surfaces up to days," researchers wrote in the study's abstract.
https://www.upi.com/Science_News/2020/03/11/Coronavirus-can-...
[+] [-] sb057|6 years ago|reply
Obviously touching your face won't decrease your chances of catching coronavirus (or any other disease), but the reason this strain is wrecking so much havoc is because of how transmissible it is, especially through simple breathing. The implication being, if you get it on your hands, you've almost certainly already breathed it in.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3URhJx0NSw
[+] [-] lxe|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jascii|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] crusso|6 years ago|reply
The world will be a better place.
[+] [-] elicash|6 years ago|reply
Start wearing a bracelet or something else to give yourself a little reminder when you are reaching for your face. I have no idea whether bracelets themselves are germ traps, of course.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kevsim|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmelaich|6 years ago|reply
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-03-10/how-south-east-asia-i...
[+] [-] other_herbert|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oogetyboogety|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] zmmmmm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] prox|6 years ago|reply