Head-tracked window
- Status
- Prototype
- Role
- Design and engineering
- Kind
- WebGL, Computer vision, Depth estimation, Performance
- Activity
A test for this portfolio's finale: your screen behaves like glass above a kitchen counter. Move your head or tilt the laptop and the scene shifts the way a real window would.
The idea
Webcam head tracking drives an off-axis projection, so the screen reads as a window onto the scene, not a flat picture. Left and right, up and down, and tilt all respond. Distance changes the depth feel, not the zoom.
How it works
One AI-generated overhead photo, with depth estimated offline using Depth Anything V2, rendered as a textured 3D mesh. I started with gaussian splats and switched to a mesh for performance.
The bar I held it to
Motion had to feel immediate and smooth, closer to physically moving a laptop than to a lagging effect. And resolution is never downscaled to buy performance: optimise never means lower quality.