How does it work? Is it https://people.csail.mit.edu/mrub/evm/? I see the FAQ about VitalLens, but I couldn't find technical details.
It's super cool. Thanks for sharing. I want to build a biofeedback app for meditation and this looks like a good platform to use.
I feel like the primary use case for such a technology is manipulating and profiling people over video chat, maybe even autonomously. Hiring managers, HR, landlords, and police are obvious customers.
The response I anticipate will be "But this will help doctors over telehealth and stuff!" - Please see https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted
This tech (detecting pulse from regular video) has been around almost 20 years now, and this doesn't seemed to have happened yet.
You see this type of thing in spy movies, but I'm not sure it's that useful in real life. You're basically taking one piece of data a polygraph uses, but without the most important component (skin conductance). Polygraph accuracy isn't that great to begin with. You can profile and manipulate people more effectively based on their reactions and behaviour, and their pulse will be much harder to interpret.
Can you explain how https://calebhearth.com/dont-get-distracted applies to the potential response you described? I don't get it.
Don't get distracted, sit down and read it in full.
Don't get distracted, think about what he wrote.
If you still don't get it, take a step back. Think. Process. Then take a break and read it again tomorrow.
Slow down. Don't get distracted. You don't need to respond so fast. Take your time. There is no rush. There is no shortcut. Read it in full and you'll understand this comment says much more.
They will weaponize it.
It’s not very accurate. Maybe because of the camera fidelity. It was about 10bpm lower than actual for me. Seems to operate off of subtle motions caused by pulse. It was even worse at detecting breathing.
It didn't work for me. Win10Pro, Firefox 146.0, Dell T5400 workstation with LG monitor, no camera or microphone ever installed.
LOL. I'm with users /u/functionmouse and /u/croes. This will be weaponized against the users, possibly by adding it to apps with other, more normally useful technology. There will be no disclosure outside of the one that is buried in dozens of pages of ToS that no one will ever read. That will make it all okay from the app provider's standpoint because ethics can't be allowed to get in the way of all that income.
Maybe I should keep a browser open so it can burn some cycles looking for a camera.
I hate SaaS bullshit apps.
May be related: Explanation of motion and color amplification in video by Steve Mould https://youtube.com/watch?v=rEoc0YoALt0
He even shows pulse detection (around 8:30).
There's a version of this built into the Google Fit application for Android.
Could be interesting, but allowing the webcam crashes my browser.Repeatedly
macOS 15.7.1 (24G231) Brave 1.87.186 (Official Build) (arm64) Chromium: 145.0.7632.45
In the minified source code, we may see, it uses:
``` try { const l=await navigator.mediaDevices.getUserMedia({audio:!1,video:{facingMode:"user"}}); /* ... */ } catch { this.showError("Could not access webcam. Please check permissions.") } ```
There are alternatives to verify mediaDevices support as https://addpipe.com/getusermedia-examples/
But even a missing check shouldn’t be able to crash the browser.
It registered in the low 40s for me, while my watch was saying 72-75. I guess YMMV
I would prefer some kind of privacy statement or even some kind of explanation about what is going on before I just randomly turn my webcam on. This might be great and I’m proud of you for launching but I don’t do things like that. Heck, videos can make a person’s heart race - I had my first attack at 39 and that’s a hell of a lot of risk.
I haven't dug deeper due to time availability, but for the same sake of privacy, I've found:
1. `/api/event` endpoint mentioned in the `/stats/script.js` file;
2. There's `/parties/lobby/main/telemetry` in a minified JavaScript chunk asset;
3. There's VitalLens mentioned, and there's an error string in the same asset: "A valid API key or proxy URL is required to use VitalLens. If you signed up recently, please try again in a minute to allow your API key to become active. Otherwise, head to https://www.rouast.com/api to get a free API key."
This is really kind of you - I appreciate this. Thank you for taking that time!
Worked for me on Android. Love the simplicity.