Entertainment

Control Music & Movies With Movement Using Flutter

With a webcam attached to your computer you have many options available to you. You can conduct video chats, set up a simple security system and much more. With Flutter installed, there is something completely different you can do.

When you’re watching a movie, or listening to music on your computer, you may need to quickly pause playback which results in a mad scramble to find your mouse or keyboard and then finding the right control in the media player you’re using. Flutter enables you to use your web cam for simple playback control.

The app is still in the fairly early stages of development, but it is an intriguing glimpse into what might be to come, and it’s still a very useful app in the meantime. Flutter is essentially a very basic version of Microsoft Kinect that enables you to put existing hardware to better use.

Flutter is a unique app and the web site is a stylish affair.

The app overcomes a serious problem for anyone who uses their computer to listen to music or watch movies. If there is a knock at the door or a phone call which means that you need to quickly pause what you’re playing, using Flutter means that you no longer need to hunt down a peripheral to control your player, you can just wave your hand in front of your camera.

Have A Flutter

Head on over to the Flutter web site and click the orange Download button at the bottom of the page. Save the file to the desktop and then run through the installation process in the normal way – there are no hidden extras or nasty surprises to be found here.

Flutter’s introductory tutorial continues the comic book look of the program web site.

The tutorial window that appears gives you a brief introduction to the way the program works – just click I’m Ready to continue. Make sure that you have your web cam connected to your computer and practice the first gesture – the one that will be used to pause and resume playback. Hold you open palm up in front of your camera.

The tutorial will automatically move to the next screen and you will then need to point your thumb to the right; this is the fast forward or next track gesture. Finally, point your thumb to the left to perform the rewind or previous track gesture and you’ll have reached the end of the tutorial.

The tutorial helps you to get use to the idea of gesturing to your web cam and helps to calibrate the app.

As the tutorial points out, when you are performing the gestures for Flutter, there is no need to move. Hold your hand in one of the three supported positions somewhere between one and six feet from your web cam.

Flutter In Action

There are a limited number of apps that can be used in conjunction with Flutter – the currently supported apps are iTunes, Spotify, Winamp and Windows Media Player. There are no additional steps required to get Flutter to work with any of these apps as they are all supported out of the box – there’s also a Mac version of the software which supports a different range of apps.

There is only support for a small number of apps at the moment, but this may change in time.

Other apps may be added in the future, but this is enough to get your started even if you’re only looking at Flutter as something of a curiosity. When you launch an app that is supported by Flutter, a notification will pop up from the system tray.

A pop up notification lets you know that a particular app can be used with Flutter.

While we’re looking at the system tray, it’s worth mentioning a couple of the options that can be found here. Right click the Flutter icon in the notification area of the taskbar, and in the popup menu that appears you’ll find the option to switch off your camera – this is helpful if you need to stop using gestures temporarily. To ensure that Flutter is always available and that you do not have to explicitly launch it in order to gesture control your media player, click the ‘Auto start at logon’ option so that it is ticked.

This is definitely an app to keep an eye on. It is basic at the moment – but still impressive – and it looks like it is something that is going to go from strength to strength. The developers are keen for users to get involved with the app and appreciate feedback from anyone who has experienced problems, has suggestions for future ideas or who just want to get in touch. You can contact them through the Flutter web site, but also by right clicking the system tray icon and selecting Share followed by ‘Send a Suggestion’.

Get in touch with the Flutter developers if you would like to share your thoughts on the app.

Have you found any other interesting ways to put your webcam to good use? Would you prefer to use a remote control rather than hand gestures to control your media? Let me know what you think in the comments below.

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