Slide to Unlock

[Phelinofist]

This helped me to find out that my Huawei phone had "AI Touch" enabled. That apparently is a feature to touch any image with two fingers and the super smart AI finds out what is shown in the picture and where to buy it.

Goes without saying that I immediately disabled this. /shrug

[hombre_fatal]

Amazing. That’s a feature you’d expect at the top of an HN brainstorm for comically bad, far fetched phone ideas.

[shostack]

Aka "every time you touch something registered as two fingers, that gets phoned home to Huawei and likely incorporated into an ad signals database.

[langsoul-com]

Doesn't that solve the problem of where can I buy this? Similar to social media containing links to purchase advertised wares.

Sounds pretty neat if it's accurate.

[Fnoord]

Sounds like you got some nice spyware for the Chinese government.

[somedude895]

Does it create affiliate links? That'd be genius and absolutely pathetic at the same time. Either way I wouldn't be surprised.

[xnx]

I like Android, but I would never ever recommend anyone buy anything but Google Pixel phones because of nonsense like this.

[dhosek]

At some point, the reverse image search on Google started doing this, which was really annoying. Although I kind of would like it to see if I can find a replacement for a pendant lamp that I accidentally broke one of the glass cylinders that surround the light bulbs on, but I can’t find any photos of the non-broken light fixture.

[mgbmtl]

Android (on my Pixel6) does this in a more subtle way, which I think is Ok:

Swipe bottom to up, to show the list of open apps, it will detect the images on the app preview. Click on an image, and there is a "shopping" option (part of Google lenses).

[koolba]

What did it think the squiggly lines were and what did it try to sell you?

Did it think they’re chromosomes and try to sell DNA testing services?

[genericuser256]

Seems like this was made by Craig Kaplan (https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/). Had him for graphics while at school there, and he was a fantastic professor

[tobr]

His work on aperiodic monotiles has been in the news very recently. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36119920

[ahmedalsudani]

+1 csk is as good as it gets. Had him for my first CS class there and to the end of my time there, that class stood out both in terms of quality and enjoyment/engagement.

If you're at Waterloo and have the chance to be in Craig's class, jump at it.

[kelseyfrog]

Unconventional, but I played this both solo and with my kiddos. As a multiplayer co-op game it really shines. Granted it's easier than solo, but maneuvering multiple people around a tiny phone was absurdly funny.

[pluc]

Twister but for fingers

[Alifatisk]

Oh, I thought this was meant to be played solo. No wonder why my fingers got so twisted.

Rotating phone solved it but that’s against the point.

[quantisan]

this was fun. Any suggestions for other casual co-op games on the phone that I can play with my almost-4 year old?

[propter_hoc]

Made it to 3 fingers and then couldn't advance as my phone interpreted a 3 finger swipe as a screenshot. I'm counting it as a win since I learned a new feature of my phone!

[Tistron]

Had the same problem at first, but moving one finger before the others made it work. At four fingers my phone can't do it anymore. It seems that it can only detect 3 pressure points at a time.

[fsckboy]

quit at 2 fingers because, why am i doing this? (i've actually commented before on HN about my dislike of all the sliders in the iOS UI, what an annoyingly difficult specialized skill to have to say up on just to hit what should be very fast and simple radio buttons or checkboxes)

[rkagerer]

What's annoying and counter to popular convention / user expectations is that you have to keep your finger in the established path to keep grip of the "ball". (S'pecially given your finger often blocks the view of it).

[James_K]

I'm not sure that the game would work without this restriction. If you kept grip of the ball regardless of if your finger was on the path none of the game's puzzles would work since you could just move your fingers wherever you wanted without losing the ball.

[gffrd]

Why is it annoying?

The feedback is immediate and highly discoverable.

The Lock Screen on your phone has totally different criteria (ease, muscle memory) than a toy that uses the same metaphor (fun/challenging)

Also: isn’t it more fun this way??

[version_five]

That's the whole point of the game, no? It was what I expected. Are some slide to unlock bars "ratchets" that stay where you left them?

[1123581321]

Definitely one of the core challenges of the game, and understandably not to everyone’s taste. I learned that I inadvertently swipe in a slight arc on the first puzzle and enjoyed learning to move precisely.

[underwater]

It's the same as a one of those games with the wire and the buzzer, just with a different interface.

[xg15]

I think that's the first nontrivial use of multitouch that I have seen in the wild (i.e. that is not basic "pinch to zoom" stuff).

Really cool!

[omnibrain]

How about touch instruments like GeoShred? https://apps.apple.com/de/app/geoshred/id1064769019

[CharlesHorsey]

If you like this, there’s a great early iPhone game called Eliss with similar finger twisting multitouch. There’s an Android version now too.

[zuprau]

Early iPhone/iPad games were really creative with this before everyone just settled on making candy crush games.

[grishka]

Doesn't work well on phones though, you really need a tablet. When you get to 4 fingers, it starts randomly losing track of a finger or two when fingers get close to each other. I tried two different Android phones and an iPhone.

[bsimpson]

Won't even let you start on a computer with DevTools and touch emulation.

[beAbU]

I was unable to get past the second 3 finger one. It kept glitching out when I put down my third finger.

Samsung Galaxy S20

[nabakin]

Yeah phones are hard mode but still possible. I did it on a 5 inch screen

[_nalply]

or a laptop with touchscreen

[max0563]

This would be a fun game with some UX improvements. It's extremely frustrating when the reason I can't finish a puzzle is because my finger slipped off the line and not because I just don't know the solution. I stopped playing because of how frustrating that was.

[Eater_of_food]

It's a dexterity game. Think of it like Jenga, even if you know which block to pull out, the tower can still fall if you don't do it cleanly.

At least with this you don't need to rebuild the whole tower!

[fowl2]

Errors in Firefox 114.0b9 (Windows), both using mouse and touchscreen:

Uncaught TypeError: can't access property Symbol.iterator, _0x2129b3.changedTouches is undefined touchEnded https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~csk/slide/slide.js:1 _onmouseup https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/p5.js/1.6.0/p5.min.js...

[Fatnino]

Doesn't work on Firefox for android either.

[justin_oaks]

How far does it go? I hit some really hard ones with 3 fingers. I think my phone gets confused if my fingers are too close to each other, which makes it especially difficult.

This also feels like playing a game of Operation [1]. The author just needs to add an annoying buzzer sound whenever you fail.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_(game)

[jumploops]

Spoiler Alert

There are 31 levels, though I didn't personally finish. Proof [0]

[0] https://imgur.com/a/ldY0IkC

[yccs27]

It goes up to 4 fingers, and the last one is 3 fingers again but basically impossible without switching fingers. Edit: nvm its possible without cheating

[zokier]

I got to four finger ones, but they are bit much to me.

I wonder if there is optimum phone size for this, mine might be smidgen too small

[TrianguloY]

At least 4 fingers!

[ben-schaaf]

Some frustrating with this game comes from the slider resetting when moving too fast. With debug touch points enabled I can see that I never leave the path, but it still resets. This is exasperated on Firefox where rendering seems to be slow resulting in constant resets.

[tgtweak]

You should be used to high difficulty if you're using Firefox on mobile.

[hereonout2]

Nope, I don't get it sorry, this is so infuriating. A gamified version of all the frustrations I have with mobile UX and my fat fingers.

[phh]

I get it. A gamified version of all the frustrations I have with mobile UX and my fat fingers exaggerated to absurdity. Personally I take it as art, not as a game. I won't play it for more than 3 minutes.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Whoosh!

[cjdell]

Multi-touch digitiser acid test. Phone manufacturers take note!

[AlphaWeaver]

If you find this fun, you might like The Witness, a game with a similar gameplay mechanic as part of its core loop: https://store.steampowered.com/app/210970/The_Witness/

[cglong]

Or The Looker, if you like to laugh at the same time :) https://store.steampowered.com/app/1985690/The_Looker/

[andai]

It's not often I get the urge to throw my phone at a wall, but this did the trick.

[operator-name]

This is pretty fun! It seems the starting position of your fingers is important, as is the ability to rotate the device. Interesting to see how many mobile HN users there are too.

[wizofaus]

Technically you don't need to rotate the device (I did it with my touchscreen-enabled laptop), but you will have to get out of your chair!

[parasti]

I love a simple idea pushed far beyond expectation. It's a little choppy on my phone, though (Firefox Android).

[the_third_wave]

Works fine on my "underpowered, terribly slow" [1] device, also using Firefox.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36103176

[SpaghettiCthulu]

Doesn't seem to work at all on mine (also Firefox Android).

[pintxo]

"Twister on a touchscreen"

[mrspuratic]

Coming to a captcha near you RSN :/

[redreceipt]

This is awesome. Gimme cookies please so I can pick up where I left off!

[wizofaus]

It does actually seem to remember where you were up to after you do the first simple one.

[explaininjs]

Great game. My only wish is that each level had an associated URL (with a nonguessable ID, perhaps). Would make saving and sharing much easier.

[borgchick]

Me: "ah ha! I got it, rotation!"

Game: "level 2: moar fingers required"

Me: "damn you fingers! y u get in each other's way all the time??"

Frustrating, but intriguing.

[tobr]

That’s fun! This would be a fun speedrun game.

(To watch. Not to try to actually speedrun yourself. That sounds painful, emotionally as well as physically.)

[tobr]

I would have liked a visual indication for exactly where you went off track. With multiple fingers it’s not always obvious.

[leni536]

I can't play with a convertible laptop with multitouch screen, although it works fine in https://naqtn.github.io/WBBMTT/touch-tester.html . I'm using Firefox on KDE Plasma wayland.

[beefman]

Reminds me of Cross Fingers, an early iOS game I really enjoyed

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cross-fingers/id337490369

[Tmpod]

Couldn't get it to work on my Pixel 4a, kept asking to use a tablet or a phone... .-.

[dang]

Related:

Slide to unlock ... a new puzzle - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36112310 - May 2023 (4 comments)

[noman-land]

This is extremely fun! But reloading the page loses your progress :(.

[TrianguloY]

It doesn't, but the first white horizontal swipe is always needed. Unfortunately there is a "reset" button that, when pressed, resets your progress without confirmation.

I was at 4 fingers :(

[snickerbockers]

Reminds me of elite beat agents on DS

[null_shift]

Not sure why, but I found this gave me a lot of anxiety.

I think maybe the focus and fine motor control needed to keep the ball within the lines…

[mcint]

I wish cookies or unique URLs for level saving was implemented. I restarted multiple times because Firefox and Safari had phantom sticky activations I couldn't override. That final 3 finger twitter was a nice challenge. (I suppose a "reset detected inputs" button would do too).

[TheAceOfHearts]

I made it to a level where you need to use 4 fingers and can't figure it out. This is level [0] could someone give me a hint or tell me how you solved it on mobile?

[0] https://imgur.com/dxC5J0e

[kristopolous]

Do the two outside then the two inside

[m12k]

For a horror/slasher movie inspired version of this, check out the smartphone game Slice HD - it's "multi-touch-fiddly" the same way as this, but any time you mess up, you get an unnerving impression of having your fingertips sliced off.

[ho_schi]

Feels like normal sized phones like iPhone Mini or SE 1st Gen are in advantage?

[flexagoon]

Great game! Though I'm not sure if I solved the last level in the way it was intended to be solved - I wouldn't have been able to do it the way I did it if my fingers were like half a cm shorter

[nabakin]

I solved it with some creative initial positioning. Thumb and index of one hand on the curved and middle straight line and my other hand index going between the two to reach the start of the other curved line

[forgotmypw17]

Looks like I finally figured out the reason to have a touchscreen laptop!

[jefftk]

Neat! Once it got to three fingers I got stuck pretty quickly, though.

[LeoNatan25]

I changed the user agent of the Mac Safari to be that of iOS, and changed the window size to be in portrait, yet it still does knows it’s not a mobile device. How does it know?

[j6ng4n]

I checked the slide.js and it uses `navigator["maxTouchPoints"]`.

Also in the code: if you want to see all the levels without touch, add ?debug=1 to the URL and use the spacebar to advance.

[mostlysimilar]

Available browser APIs?

[yarone]

It's like traversing a bad "mega menu."

Did you know that "double-click" on early Windows literally meant "click the same pixel twice in rapid succession"?

[malfist]

No, that's not what it meant. You had to click on the same icon twice, which was typically 32x32.

[3v1n0]

Basically yoga for your fingers!

Very cool... Unless it doesn't remeber your stage, and so... I cried when I swiped out the Firefox tab by mistake.

Edit: it does remeber, just need to slide once

[wodenokoto]

Speaking of slide to unlock, does anyone know why accepting app installs require double clicking the lock-button instead of sliding?

[appel]

I presume having to interact physically via hardware adds an additional layer of security.

[MattyRad]

This oozes creativity! Having to maneuver your device to complete the puzzle makes it a physical game as much as a digital one!

[JimtheCoder]

I've been trying to do this for the last 20 minutes on my desktop screen...it's not working.

Now there are finger prints all over my screen...

Any tips?

[tmtvl]

Alcohol solution and a microfibre wipe?

[benatkin]

I like the game but I don't like how it says Slide To Unlock on every page, so a ragequit after a few of them.

[tambourine_man]

This is amazing, so glad there are people doing this kind of thing just for the fun of it. Great idea and execution.

[kderbyma]

it gets really hard when you need to figure out how to rotate and keep multiple fingers on the screen while sliding

[pluijzer]

Cheating tip; use two hands, place your finger on both of the sliders, then almost complete the first one, then finish the second one.

[michaelmior]

I found that for some levels it worked for me to set my phone on a table and use my thumb to rotate the screen instead of trying to twist my hands.

[spacebacon]

It would be cool if the path animated in reverse slowly when out of bounds and allowed user to regain control.

[nayuki]

Beat the entire thing in an hour. This game was creative, challenging, and frustrating. Have my angry upvote.

[ugh123]

Very cool. Wish there was a bit more wiggle room ("easy" mode) to give to younger kids to play with

[attilaberczik]

I was thinking, could this be used as a CAPTCHA system? I mean the easier versions, up to 2 fingers

[syngrog66]

somewhat on topic nd off: gesture interfaces on mobile need to die by fire

* 80% of the time they get triggered by accident, causing some loss of modal state or user data

* other 80% of time they DONT trigger when you DO want, because your gesture wasnt EXACTLY perfect or timed right

[majikandy]

Thoroughly enjoyable. Initially I thought the slide to unlock was going to jailbreak my iPhone :)

[James_K]

Just finished this game. Great fun and a genuinely unique game amid a sea of mobile shlock.

[boerseth]

This month was a really bad time for me to have just started regrowing my guitar nails.

[keyle]

Lovey. The witness meets Twister, turns into a hack and slash horror game.

[c0rrupted]

Damn it's actually pretty difficult but it was fun nonetheless

[lowbloodsugar]

That’s just silly. Bravo.

[Waterluvian]

My six year old and I had a wonderful time doing a bunch of these.

[jasonjayr]

Try "osu!" to do this same thing but with music!

[c0rrupted]

I couldn't even imagine how hard osu! would be if you had to do multiple sliders at the same time.... that'd be practically impossible, on PC anyway.

[munro]

amazing, the game eventually froze on me tho ;( ios ff

[OOPMan]

This is comically annoying with my fat thumbs

[quickthrower2]

I couldn’t get past the super hard captcha.

Oh thats the game!

[afinlayson]

Why can't I use 2 fingers ....

[tomger]

Really great!

[perryizgr8]

Why is it disabled on laptop??

[robgibbons]

Because it requires multi touch input, eg. a capacative touchscreen, which most laptops don't have.

[aflag]

I wish there was a save button

[borgchick]

i think it does, i accidentally locked my phone, when i went back, did a refresh, and it loaded the last game after an initial "slide to unlock" screen

[fsto]

Great job! Fun and innovative!

[mirthflat83]

This made me laugh out loud

[culanuchachamim]

Just amazing! Thank you!

[mock-possum]

just doesn't work? on my touchscreen laptop in chrome?

[canbus]

well this took a few years off my life

[jojobas]

Apple patent infringement lawsuit in 3...2...

[raydiatian]

I hate it.