A New Program Automatically Adjusts Your Font To A Readable Size

Once computers can read your face, what's the next frontier of human/machine interaction? File this under the coolest thing we've seen all day: Croatian web designer and "hypertext addict" Marko Dugonjić has created a website where the size of the text changes based on how far away you are from the screen.


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A New Program Automatically Adjusts Your Font To A Readable Size

A New Program Automatically Adjusts Your Font To A Readable Size Image:

By Zak Stone

Once computers can read your face, what's the next frontier of human/machine interaction?

File this under the coolest thing we've seen all day: Croatian web designer and "hypertext addict" Marko Dugonjić has created a website where the size of the text changes based on how far away you are from the screen.

Visit Dugonjić's digital playground and the website will ask you for permission to use your camera. Once granted, your face will show up with the familiar green square of facial recognition that you probably have seen on the iPhone when you take pictures. As the software detects your face moving further away, the text gets bigger, so you can still see it clearly. Shove your face up in the camera and the text shrinks down.

It's more of an experiment or a learning tool for web designers than anything super practical (Although perhaps it would be useful if you were looking at a recipe. As you moved around the kitchen, the font would adjust so you wouldn't have to squint). But it's fascinating to think of websites becoming more responsive to human bodies with the increasing prevalence of facial recognition.

If the computer recognized your face was sad--for example--could it cheer you up? Dugonjić's tool points out the untapped range of design possibilities that easy-to-embed facial-recognition widgets unlock for web designers.




Fast Company Copyright 2013 by Fast Company. Reprinted with permission.


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