Gesture Launcher (goreallymental)

Control your computer with hand gestures! A Python application that uses computer vision to detect hand gestures and launch applications via webcam.

✨ Features

• 🎯 Real-time hand detection using Google’s MediaPipe
• 👆 Finger counting (0-5 fingers) for gesture recognition
• 🚀 Customizable app launching via JSON configuration
• ⏱️ 5-second cooldown to prevent accidental launches
• 📹 Visual feedback with hand landmarks overlay
• 🎨 Clean interface showing gesture status and available commands
• ⚙️ Easy configuration - edit gestures without touching code

🎮 Default Gestures

🛠️ Technology Stack

• Python 3.11+ - Core language
• OpenCV - Computer vision and camera handling
• MediaPipe - Google’s hand detection and tracking
• JSON - Configuration management
• subprocess - Application launching

🚀 Quick Start

1. Clone the repository

   git clone https://github.com/vl43den/goreallymental.git
   cd goreallymental
   

2. Set up Python environment

   conda create -n gesture_env python=3.11
   conda activate gesture_env
   conda install -c conda-forge opencv
   pip install mediapipe
   

3. Run the application

   python gesture_launcher.py
   

4. Start gesturing! ✋
   • Position your hand in front of the webcam
   • Hold up fingers (0-5) to trigger actions
   • Press ESC to exit

⚙️ Customization

The application uses a gestures.json file to map finger counts to shell commands. You can easily customize which applications launch for each gesture:

{
    "0": "gnome-terminal",
    "1": "nautilus ~/Documents",
    "2": "firefox https://github.com",
    "3": "code .",
    "4": "gedit",
    "5": "spotify"
}

🔧 Technical Implementation

• Hand Detection: MediaPipe Hands solution with 21 landmark points
• Finger Detection: Compares fingertip Y-coordinates with joint positions
• Thumb Special Case: Uses X-coordinate comparison for thumb detection
• Performance: 30+ FPS processing with minimal CPU usage
• Cooldown: time.monotonic() for precise timing

📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - making it free to use, modify, and distribute.

🎯 Use Cases

• Accessibility: Hands-free computer control
• Presentations: Launch applications without touching keyboard
• Demo purposes: Impressive computer vision showcase
• Development: Learning OpenCV and MediaPipe
• Automation: Quick access to frequently used applications

Made with luv and Python