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What is it like to control facial expressions with a game controller?
Press the LB button to blink the left eye, press the RB button to blink the right eye, and you can also perform a combo of left and right movements. (The image is mirrored)
Isn’t it a bit strange? Take another look……
By moving the right joystick, the guy instantly mastered the skill of the “crooked mouth god”.
And with the left joystick, even the challenging one-sided eyebrow raise expression can be achieved instantly.
But be careful not to press randomly, or else……
This is a recently viral open-source project. The author, a guy named handaru, is a graduate student from Japan who claims to be passionate about some “useless work”. (There is a video demonstration at the end)
Once he uploaded this latest “useless” creation online, it left netizens stunned, with nearly 70,000 likes on the tweet.
Netizens passing by expressed that this wave is like Doraemon coming to life:
Doraemon Expression Controller
Even stranger ideas have emerged……
Conversely, as long as you move your facial muscles, you can play games……?
It just looks a bit painful……
Yeah, the guy himself said it would be quite painful……
“It will be very painful during use”
The principle is simple, but you need to find the right acupoints
This system, which looks a bit “self-torturing”, is actually quite simple; anyone can see at a glance that it relies on electrical stimulation.
We all know that muscles contract when subjected to a certain level of electrical stimulation.
Specifically, if the applied voltage can depolarize muscle cells to reach the threshold potential, an action potential will be generated, leading to muscle contraction.
The peak duration of the action potential is 2ms, rising from -80mV to 60mV at most.
Most muscles contract at a 20ms cycle when stimulated.
This is very similar to the signal cycle of a servo motor, so the guy used it to power the system, ensuring the final output voltage is 150mV.
(At this point, the guy also exclaimed: Is it possible that servo motors are designed based on muscle contraction patterns?)
However, the control voltage for the servo motor, which is the power supply voltage for the circuit board, is 5V, so a circuit diagram needs to be designed:
Then it is quickly etched and printed.
The main controller is an Arduino Uno: one end connects to the controller, and the other end connects to our muscles.
The guy made a total of 10 electrodes, and toincrease conductivity, each electrode is covered with gauze soaked insaline and then directly attached to the skin.
Using a grid board like the one below + gel conductive pads can also achieve this, but the guy found that it doesn’t work as well as direct contact with the skin.
Finally, it’s time to write the program. Here, the existing Arduino library Servo is used to control the servo motor, and remember to set the motor’s ON time to 2ms.
Servo can easily add channels, and later more complex controls and more twisted expressions can be created (not really)……
Then, before connecting the controller to the Arduino board, use a framework called ROSSerial to set which button corresponds to which electrode, and everything is done.
The complete code can be found at the link at the end.
Isn’t this quite simple? Have you learned it?
The guy reminds that most of the time, just sticking it on the skin won’t necessarily yield the expected results—what’s key is to find the right stimulation acupoints, which requires exploring the human muscle model one by one.
Also, the controller can be adapted not only to the Logitech one the guy has but also to Switch, PS4, and even keyboards.
Finally, based on the same principle, he also created a device to control fingers:
Look at this effect, theoretically if the control is precise enough, even a novice can become a pianist, right?
Netizens: Reverse Operation, Let’s Play Games
As mentioned earlier, after this operation by handaru, the comments section exploded with ideas.
For example, reverse operation, using the face to battle the Valkyrie in Elden Ring……
Or this kind of gameplay is also possible:
Some even mentioned that this device could benefit the hotel industry, as service staff would no longer fear not being able to produce a standard smile 🙂
Of course, there were also serious discussions, such as a topic that many in the comments section were concerned about:
Can this device benefit patients with facial paralysis?
In fact, among the existing treatment options for facial paralysis, there is indeed electrical stimulation therapy.
This is mainly based on the functional characteristics of neuro-muscular anatomy in traditional Chinese medicine, using electrical acupuncture to provide electrical stimulation to specific muscles to restore the sensitivity of nerve conduction.
Other “Useless” Inventions by the Guy
In his profile, handaru introduces himself as follows:
Mainly doing some useless work.
However, it seems that this time netizens feel that his “self-torture” project has quite a promising application prospect.
Before this, the guy had also created various interesting projects, such as this flower pot that allows you to communicate with plants:
With this pot, your plants can tell you their current status through messaging software.
It can even get angry……
Finally, before presenting the project link, I must remind you that although the guy has open-sourced the code, imitation comes with risks! Imitation comes with risks! Imitation comes with risks!
The guy also noted in the project:
Use the code at your own risk.
▼ Complete Video Demonstration
Project Address:https://github.com/maHidaka/ros_face
Reference Links:[1]https://twitter.com/handaru20pF/status/1514964058541199360[2]https://handaru.net/blog/2022/04/17/307/[3]https://weibo.com/6092740159/LoGQl89zD
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If you have any thoughts, feel free to leave a comment below!
The code mentioned in the article can be downloaded for free on the GitHub link above!
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