[jonchurch_]

Very cool stuff! Definitely feels like an intersection of art and programming. Not a lot of websites I pull up make me feel like I am connecting with an actual person staring back at me, however brief. Quite likely because, well, they're not. Written words are a kind of connection, one way video is a kind of connection, but two way is it's own whole thing obviously and a type of feeling that is novel in my web browsing. I know chatroulette and omegle did it first, but still the feeling is so outside of the norm of using the internet that it feels novel.

I think you definitely captured some of the intimidating vibe that unbroken direct eye contact with a stranger can create. It was very fun though. I enjoyed seeing people's facial expressions go from neutral while staring at their own face, to lighting up once they are looking directly at another person who is also trying to not blink. The eyebrow wiggles or nose contortions people pulled in order to emote while not blinking was also very fun.

I was beaming a huge smile back at folks, and eventually used a sticky note to write !iH and put it on my nose. Definitely got some reactions from that haha.

Yes, some folks are using a virtual webcam to just show a static stock image of a person's face (cowards!). But I got some unique real humans.

The disconnect is really quick, and felt like maybe there's some bugs. In terms of, folks would frequently disconnect quickly. I don't think I ever SAW anyone blink, so likely the stream is cut off immediately and the blinking frames aren't sent? I'd love to be able to see someone blink in this before they go away. Even a freeze frame of that would be nice. Grounding them going away with the human expression of blinking would help keep me in the experience, cutting away without seeing the action that caused them to "lose" breaks the experience for me.

Very cool project though! I'm not sure how often I've written code that makes a human _feel something human_ that isn't frustration haha.

[eieio]

A friend last night floated a similar idea re: cutting off too fast - it'd be great to get sent a slo-mo of them blinking. I think you're totally right that it cuts too quickly and would gain a lot there.

In general I am very very quick to cut and I think that contributes both to the experience feeling worse and to some of the bugs (there are definitely bugs!). The blink detection is also super finicky - blinks are just really fast, and if I dial down the sensitivity it's super easy to miss obvious blinks entirely.

I'm glad this is resonating with some folks though. I wasn't sure before building it if it would, and this gives me a reason to iterate on and improve it :)

[jonchurch_]

The knowledge that I can end a given session by closing my eyes feels very good and natural. It also gives it a bit of a "game" type of experience.

But I'd encourage you to think about the experience you're trying to create, in terms of how to handle the sensitivity of blinking for ending a session. With a single blink being the end, then it becomes very easy to accidentally end a session (either via a bug in false positives, or of course just doing the human thing of blinking).

If you want to maximize time spent staring into a human's eyes without looking away, then the session could end after say 1-2 seconds of eyes being closed, or looking off screen. Then the choice to leave is a bit more intentional, and so sessions can last longer for folks who really want to see how long they can stare at a stranger without tapping out.