Show HN: Created macOS app to help you keep your distance from your screen
Hey everyone,
If you're anything like me, you spend a good chunk of your day (and night) on your computer. I often find that when I'm zoned in, my posture gets worse and worse and my face ends up being really close to the screen. And over a course of a workday, when I finally unplug, my eyes have a hard time focusing on things that are far away. This has become a big enough problem for me that I decided to create an app to help me keep my face far enough from the screen.
Now, I could've gone with a simple notification with a timer built into it but, as with all reminder notification, they soon become noise for me and I end up just dismissing it. I needed something to actively force me to move back. Which is where FarSight comes in.
It uses your camera to gauge your distance and blurs the entire screen if it detects that you are getting close enough for a certain period of time. I made it so that it won't be extremely annoying and disruptive (e.g. blurring the screen every time you cross the line) but just enough of a nuisance to be helpful. I've been using it everyday since creating it and it's definitely helped me with eye strain, double vision, and surprisingly, my posture as well.
I'm not sure if I'll keep it free forever but I wanted to release it first to ask for feedback. I only have the app in MacOS so if it has enough interest, I'll invest into making Windows counterpart.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/farsight-restore-your-eyes/id6...
Also, in case anyone is wondering, no data is collected and the snapshots during the app's usage are not saved but only used to calculate the distance.
This is awesome! I have wanted something like this for ages. Can you please also add posture tracking? Rounded shoulders, hunching, leg up, etc. I have ADHD and constantly fidget and get myself in working positions that are definitely not good for me in the long run.
Thanks for the suggestion! I totally agree - my posture gets worse and worse as the time goes by. Hopefully FarSight can be somewhat useful as a reminder to keep your posture straight.
The body posture is much harder to capture, especially if the camera is directly in front of you. But I'll definitely look into this for the future version. Thanks again!
I saw an app a while ago that uses the camera to just track the top of your head, and alerts you if it lowers too much. It's a simple solution that works great for slouching.
It may have been this: https://nekoze.app
Oh that's good to know. Looks like it hasn't been maintained much, sadly. That might be a future feature that I can work on.
Anyone know of something similar for Windows?
Not that I know of. But if there is enough need for it, I can always create the Windows counterpart