It's a great idea. It pretty directly re-humanizes the web.

Some marketing to consider...

Both "staring" and "strangers" gives it a disconcerting vibe, amplified by the dark background and the naked request to enable the webcam.

What about "See someone" or "See someone seeing you" or "See someone seeing you for a second", with a blue sky to start?

Then instead of emphasizing staring, just say something like "blink to leave".

Thus: "The webcam will show only your face, and then you will see someone seeing you. Blink to leave."

Also, in the detailed explanation, you might add that it is peer-to-peer, and no images are captured or stored anywhere else.

The "buy me coffee" link makes the site seem... incentivized, I guess. If you instead add that prompt to the information panel about you, I think you would still capture the appreciative few without putting off the many now triggered by pervasive tipping (kind of like early google text ads vs yahoo banner ads).

Very cool stuff! Definitely feels like an intersection of art and programming. Not a lot of websites I pull up make me feel like I am connecting with an actual person staring back at me, however brief. Quite likely because, well, they're not. Written words are a kind of connection, one way video is a kind of connection, but two way is it's own whole thing obviously and a type of feeling that is novel in my web browsing. I know chatroulette and omegle did it first, but still the feeling is so outside of the norm of using the internet that it feels novel.

I think you definitely captured some of the intimidating vibe that unbroken direct eye contact with a stranger can create. It was very fun though. I enjoyed seeing people's facial expressions go from neutral while staring at their own face, to lighting up once they are looking directly at another person who is also trying to not blink. The eyebrow wiggles or nose contortions people pulled in order to emote while not blinking was also very fun.

I was beaming a huge smile back at folks, and eventually used a sticky note to write !iH and put it on my nose. Definitely got some reactions from that haha.

Yes, some folks are using a virtual webcam to just show a static stock image of a person's face (cowards!). But I got some unique real humans.

The disconnect is really quick, and felt like maybe there's some bugs. In terms of, folks would frequently disconnect quickly. I don't think I ever SAW anyone blink, so likely the stream is cut off immediately and the blinking frames aren't sent? I'd love to be able to see someone blink in this before they go away. Even a freeze frame of that would be nice. Grounding them going away with the human expression of blinking would help keep me in the experience, cutting away without seeing the action that caused them to "lose" breaks the experience for me.

Very cool project though! I'm not sure how often I've written code that makes a human _feel something human_ that isn't frustration haha.

The video feed showing the stranger's face doesn't seem to be working, but the inputs taken from my own camera (blinks) do. Is there a way to fix that issue on my end?

Talking about physical devices, I see you mention tablets in public places. Would you make them eye-catching, so people come up to them, or hidden, to be spooked by someone's stare? There is an interesting project in Vilnius & Lublin that just shows a livestream on what's on the other side (it's still up today) https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/30/22460964

yeah, that message plays if the face detection can't find a face. It's a little wonky because on their end the face detection gets their whole webcam (and then crops to just the face) - but the cropped version is all that's transmitted to you (I thought it'd be deceptive to transmit more). SOmetimes the face detection struggles to find a face in the cropped face. But I thought cutting the video there was safer than letting it through.

Glad you had a fun and weird experience with your other play session. That's certainly the intended experience.

Me too, I go into solid stare mode during the countdown but as soon as the stranger appears I can't keep it together.

I am curious, what is this phenomenon called?

EDIT: I believe this is called "Eye Gazing". https://www.scienceofpeople.com/making-eye-contact

Look for the section "How Eye Gaze Deepens Emotional Connection"

Is there a name for this kind of thing?

Since you're alluding to there not being a policy - someone can now tie a face to an IP address.

I can't find it?

I can think of quite a few entities that are very, very interested in this data.

Nice project though!

In silent lucidity, dreams take flight, A canvas of stars, a tranquil night. Whispers of moonbeams, soft and wide, Guiding the soul on a cosmic tide.

What about dogs? Any presenting as dogs?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Internet,_nobody_knows_...

What do you think the baseline gender ratio is on HN? Presumably we made up nearly all the users for the site today.

I think I would do it if it guaranteed a gender. It would give you that fall in love feeling potentially.

Real women are rare on the internet, especially on the tech sites

Now got 4x in a row: stranger lost video.

I got paired with an opponent who didn't respond at all, but I had a blast

this is definitely not intentional and is probably some combination of me doing a bad job of setting up webrtc, people having spotty internet, and people messing with the site.

You may like the game "Before Your Eyes" then, it's controlled by blinking: https://www.gog.com/en/game/before_your_eyes