Browse the web Hands Free (Chrome extension) | Hacker News Reader

Browse the web Hands Free (Chrome extension)

handsfreechrome.com

34 pointsaerovistae12 comments

This is the initial release. While it's not perfect, it works pretty damn well. I'm hoping this will be transformative for people with injured/missing hands or disorders and conditions such as Parkinson's or severe essential tremor.

For the rest of us, it's just fun. Once you get used to it, it's very comfortable as opposed to using a mouse/keyboard.

The main problem relates to the "map" command, which you'll quickly learn about once you try it out. It's a tricky problem, painting numbers next to all the clickable, visible items. What's clickable? What's visible? It's especially hard because some of the most popular pages (gmail, facebook) don't use standard input elements but rather heavily JS'ed divs that act like inputs.

(I know the website looks like it's from the 90s. Spare me.)

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This is an initial release. It's not perfect, but it works pretty damn well. I know the website looks like it's from circa 2002, spare me.

The main issue relates to the map command, which you'll quickly discover if you try the extension out.

How do you tell which elements on a page are clickable? How do you tell which elements on a page are truly visible? It's a bit tricky. Right now I default to buttons, inputs, anchors, spans, lis, textareas, and one or two others, and check for display:none, visibility:hidden, hidden parent elements, opacity:0, and overlapping positions, and maybe something else.

But it's especially hard with major websites like gmail and facebook that use heavily JS'ed divs instead of inputs. Still haven't found a solid solution to that one.

I love when they say "Hands Free permits easy browsing while eating or multitasking, finally bringing an end to the dark era in which a comfortable individual would have to physically move in order to click, scroll, or type.", like if our sedentaries lives where not sedentary enough already.

The microphone input window keeps asking me for permission to use my microphone. I click on Allow, but it keeps asking.

You mean repeatedly, immediately after accepting? As in, it never lets you have access to the mic?

Of course it's primarily intended for browsing the web while eating or doing other serious stuff

Would be really fun to watch this go in a crowded area where there are other voices :)

I love playing with this. Thanks for building it.

Something like this would be great for mobile

Apple should include OpenEars as part of iOS to have an advantage for all iOS 8 apps

> For the average user, Hands Free permits easy browsing while eating or multitasking,

How can you eat and utter voice commands at the same time?

I think the point is that your hands may get greasy or have food bits on them and you can still browse without getting your keyboard dirty.

Spraying out food particles and spit all over the keyboard and monitor is ok then! :)

As the saying goes, "It's not polite to talk with your mouth open."

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