HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

lukko

829 karma · joined September 14, 2020

lungy.app
submissionscomments
lukko··on Ask HN: What are you working on? (September 2026)
https://www.lungy.app

It's a breathing app that uses your phone to recognise and measure breathing in real-time. Breathing also drives interactive visuals, e.g. fluid, cloth sims and soft body sims.

I have been meaning to make an Android version, but as an interim I started building a web version of simple breathing patterns here: https://lungy.app/breathe/

lukko··on Someone Shared a Real Monet Painting as AI and Asked for Critiques
Exactly - context is everything in art, in how it's experienced and how it is created.

I think it's important to note that a jpg of Monet is not fully experiencing the painting in any sense. Colours will not be accurately captured, the texture, the framing, the scale - it's sort of like getting a heavily watered down version of the expensive wine, saying it's cheap wine, and asking what people think.

lukko··on I hate soldering
Some nice Schlieren photography on show here too [0]. Also seen on John Martyn's Solid Air [1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlieren_photography [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_Air

lukko··on OpenAI’s o1 correctly diagnosed 67% of ER patients vs. 50-55% by triage doctors
I'd be a little bit careful here - being a jerk is quite different to non-conformity / red sneaker effect in surgery and it is not a quality you should look for.

The truly compassionate surgeons will want to improve their skills because they care about their patients. They care if they develop complications and may feel terrible if they do, the jerk may not. Being a jerk may mean that the surgeon can rise to the top, but it may not be due to surgical skill at all, they may be better at navigating politics etc.

lukko··on OpenAI’s o1 correctly diagnosed 67% of ER patients vs. 50-55% by triage doctors
I'm surprised at both the article and the paper - both seem very hyperbolic. This is LLMs competing against doctors in a way that is heavily weighted in the LLMs favour, which does not represent clinical practice. These reasoning cases are not benchmarks for doctors, they are learning tools.

I think it's important to note that diagnosis also relies on accurate description of the patient in the first place, and the information you gather depends on the differential diagnosis. Part of the skill of being a doctor is gathering information from lots of different sources, and trying to filter out what is important. This may be from the patient, who may not be able to communicate clearly or may be non verbal, carers and next of kin. History-taking is a skill in itself, as well as examination. Here those data are given.

For pattern recognition from plain text, especially on questions that may be in the o1's training data, I'm not surprised at all that it would outperform doctors, but it doesn't seem to be a clinically useful comparison. Deciding which investigations to do, any imaging, and filtering out unnecessary information from the history is a skill in itself, and can't really be separated from forming the diagnosis.

lukko··on An open-source stethoscope that costs between $2.5 and $5 to produce
It does feel magical, especially when the first sound comes in. More details here [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korotkoff_sounds

lukko··on An open-source stethoscope that costs between $2.5 and $5 to produce
In the UK it would be Class Im - so low risk device that sits outside the body, with a measuring functionality.
lukko··on Introduction to spherical harmonics for graphics programmers
this is all so interesting.. Are there any particular functions / parameters that are typically used, that say replicates 3 point light setups?

I guess at a certain point the number of terms becomes so large that it makes sense to just use a cube map?

lukko··on Introduction to spherical harmonics for graphics programmers
Ah amazing - thank you for the response! I have a couple of related questions - is it that the non 2 pi frequencies exist, but they destructively interfere so we can't see them? My understanding is that the radial function for the electron is zero at the nucleus - there is no possibility of it being found there - but why is that the case?
lukko··on Introduction to spherical harmonics for graphics programmers
This is really great. I always saw those harmonic shapes as electron orbitals, I had no idea they could be used in lighting too - so cool.

It made me wonder - why do the electron orbitals take those shapes in say a hydrogen atom? Is there a constraint on the electron and proton together that make it fit only to spherical harmonic functions?

lukko··on Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman Equation: Reinforcement Learning and Diffusion Models
I've just started to try and learn the basics of RL and the Bellman Equation - are there any good books or resources I should look at? I think this post is beyond my current level.

I'm most interested in how the equation can be implemented step by step in an ML library - worked examples would be very helpful.

Thank you!

lukko··on Don't post generated/AI-edited comments. HN is for conversation between humans.
Hahah, this made me laugh. Thanks, Claude
lukko··on The Swift SDK for Android
Thanks - I see, so swift packages for everything.

What would be the equivalent shader / GPU language on Android? OpenGL?

lukko··on The Swift SDK for Android
I would love if I don't have to port my whole iOS app to Android manually. How exactly would this integration work if say business logic is handled by Swift - I'm guessing UI and SwiftUI would not be supported initially?

My app [0] uses a lot of metal shader code - I'm guessing there's no easy way to bring that across?

[0] https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id1545223887

lukko··on Show HN: I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio
The rigidity is in creating derivative work, if you make something original you will know, it will be very exciting.

All the best to you both.

lukko··on Show HN: I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio
You’re reinforcing my point on not really understanding what design is, above. It is not a surface coating or a look.
lukko··on Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app
I'm a doctor too and would love to hear more about the rationale and process for creating this.

It's quite interesting to have a binary distinction: 'concerned vs not concerned', which I guess would be more relevant for referring clinicians, rather than getting an actual diagnosis. Whereas naming multiple choice 'BCC vs melanoma' would be more of a learning tool useful for medical students..

Echoing the other comments, but it would be interesting to match the cards to the actual incidence in the population or in primary care - although it may be a lot more boring with the amount of harmless naevi!

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a dermatologist and I vibe coded a skin cancer learning app
Classically, BCC's have a pearly surface and 'rolled' edges, which differentiates them from pimples.
lukko··on Show HN: I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio
This was my concern too - as a little project, it's interesting but if it's a replica of XP it has been done before and much more accurately.

As a portfolio, I think it doesn't work at all and is detrimental to what you're trying to do. I think now in design, it is more important than ever for your work to cut through the noise and show at least some attempt to create something original.

I think sometimes graphic design is seen as competence with certain programs, which I guess includes genAI now, or making something cool - but really it is visual communication that responds to a set of constraints - e.g. a brief, tailored to a target audience, communicating a product or emotion. There are no shortcuts - study what has been done, work on communicating what you want to say with colour, layout, typography and images. Draw and paint; avoid genAI until you are competent without it. Currently as a graphic design portfolio, I'm sorry to say it is memorably bad and there is a lot of work to do.

That said, well done on finishing something, and making it to the top of HN. I hope the attention leads somewhere and that you continue making things.

lukko··on Attention is your scarcest resource (2020)
I like the idea of a 'bullshit timebox' - an hour period of protected time for minor chores & slightly annoying tasks.

I wonder what the best way of arranging it is. I guess you want to schedule them or have set weekly times, otherwise there's a slight overhead of remembering and finding the best time to timebox. Or maybe you use the last timebox to schedule the next one..

lukko··on 'Gentle parenting' my smartphone addiction
Is this a paid placement? It seems kinda unusual for the NY to name an app on the home page, and there doesn't seem to be anything unique about Opal vs other blocker apps.
lukko··on Robotic tongue drummer bangs out all the ambient hits
I love that the design is based on a Cray II [0]! I recently saw the original supercomputer in Paris.

I can't quite see why this would need a Arduino Opta, over a regular Arduino Nano (maybe with a multiplexer?) - is it because the solenoids are 24V?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cray-2

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Oh, thank you for pointing that out!

If you notice any more typos / terrible translations please send to hello [at] lungy [dot] app and I'll get them fixed. Thank you!

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Hey, breathing exercises do seem to have quite a positive effect, and are very low cost and low risk - recent meta-analysis here [0]. One of the reasons the evidence base is so patchy, is that compliance is generally quite low, which is one of the reasons for making a digital platform that can map any benefit to how frequently patients use the platform.

The wellness version only creates an anonymised token to track installs - no other data is shared. The medical device version will be a separate app.

[0] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39477355/

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
I think there’s a misunderstanding - it’s not static, the exercises updated regularly and there are frequent updates, even if no server. As well as time and development costs, there are also ongoing costs from having an app live. If recurrent payments don’t work then there is a lifetime access option ($40), which is lower than many similar apps’ annual cost. I don’t think this is unreasonable at all.
lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Why is there a premium version? Lungy did take a long time to make and there are ongoing costs even if no server currently. This work was pre-LLM - a lot of care and attention went into making it and it would not be viable in any way without some kind of monetisation.

That said, there is a lifetime access option, so no subscription, and the free version is good too.

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Sounds like you did a really great job - seeing an asthma attack unfold can be scary, and you were right to be very cautious in sharing your medication.

So, the health version will more be a collection of simple interventions which hopefully improve symptom control and quality of life, more day-to-day control than in asthma attacks.

lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Yes, exactly - that's what I saw working on post-op wards – the spirometer would just sort of sit on the bedside and collect dust.
lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
Yes, we would do this for any medical device version - there is a hurdle of porting over all the shader code, but actually with LLMs it should be much easier. I'm not sure whether to go fully Android native, or cross platform though..
lukko··on Show HN: I'm a doctor and built a responsive breathing app for anxiety and sleep
yep - it would be MHRA (UK) initially
Page 1 of 6Next →