vlc-gesture-control

VLC Gesture Control

Control VLC Media Player with hand gestures using your webcam.

VLC Gesture Control allows you to control VLC Media Player using hand gestures detected through your webcam. It uses computer vision and machine learning to recognize various hand gestures and translate them into VLC control commands.

Features

• Intuitive Gesture Controls: Control playback, volume, and navigation with natural hand gestures
• GPU Acceleration: Optional GPU acceleration for improved performance
• Camera Feedback: Real-time visual feedback with FPS display
• Robust Detection: Ignores back-of-hand gestures to prevent accidental triggers
• Multi-Monitor Support: Controls VLC even when it's not in focus

Screenshots

Play/Pause (All fingers up)	Volume Up (Index finger only)	Volume Down (Thumb + Index finger)

Supported Gestures

Gesture	Action	Description
✋ All five fingers up	Play/Pause	Show all five fingers
☝️ Index finger only	Volume Up	Raise only your index finger
👍 Thumb + index finger	Volume Down	Show only thumb and index finger
✌️ Index + middle fingers	Forward 10 sec	Peace sign
👌 Thumb + index + middle fingers	Backward 10 sec	Show thumb, index, and middle finger
🤟 Index + middle + ring fingers	Toggle Subtitle	Show index, middle, and ring fingers
🖖 All fingers except thumb	Change Audio Track	Show all fingers except thumb
👍 Left hand thumb only	Next Video	Show only thumb on left hand
👍 Right hand thumb only	Previous Video	Show only thumb on right hand

Advanced Features

• Fast Forward/Backward: When repeating the forward/backward gesture 4+ times in a row, it activates fast forward/backward mode.
• Palm Detection: The system only recognizes gestures when your palm is facing the camera, allowing you to move your hand freely without triggering unwanted actions.

Command Line Options

usage: vlc-gesture-control [-h] [--version] [--mode {cpu,gpu}] [--camera CAMERA] [--debug]

Control VLC media player using hand gestures detected through your webcam.

options:
  -h, --help           show this help message and exit
  --version            show program's version number and exit
  --mode {cpu,gpu}     Processing mode: CPU (default) or GPU if supported
  --camera CAMERA      Camera index to use (default: 0)
  --debug              Enable debug mode with additional logging

Troubleshooting

• No VLC window found: Make sure VLC is running and a video is playing.
• Camera not detected: Check your webcam connection and try a different camera index with --camera 1.
• Low FPS: Try running with GPU mode using --mode gpu or close other applications using the webcam.
• Gestures not recognized: Ensure good lighting conditions and position your hand clearly in the camera view.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

• Fork the repository
• Create your feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
• Install development dependencies (pip install -e ".[dev]")
• Make your changes
• Run tests (pytest)
• Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add some amazing feature')
• Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
• Open a Pull Request

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

• MediaPipe for hand tracking technology
• OpenCV for computer vision capabilities
• VLC Media Player for being an awesome open-source media player