Ask HN: What are you working on (August 2024)?

I've been learning how to use Blender. For a long time I've thought that working with things in 3D could be made simpler by having an app where your phone is a sort of 3D cursor, and e.g. for modeling you could use your phone as a sculpting knife by moving it around in the air.

So I spent some time trying to make an app that allows you to do that, but can't shake the thought that such an app would work better as a Blender addon/plugin rather a standalone app. And I also am trying to figure out how people work with 3D currently, to see if such a tool would even be an improvement over existing tools.

Logitech recently released a pen for this kind of purpose.

It's meant to be used with virtual reality headsets, I'm not sure if their pen can be made to work outside VR.

Do you need help with integrating your app into blender as a plugin? If so, please do reach out. I'd love to help. mail@laura.fm

Cool! Didn't know about the pen, though I've seen clips of similar tech being used.

I've got a long ways to go with this app though so it's still just a pet project. The position tracking is very suboptimal right now, so I need to switch to a better library. And then I need to start adding actual actions because right now the app is just a glorified object viewer.

I'm insanely flattered that you think it's interesting though. Very motivating to me.

:)

I love this space of hybrid computing. If you want to see some inspiration, look at

- bill buxton at Microsoft research - Disney research has a lot of really cool stuff too - anything siggraph

Please keep me up to date one way or another. If you have linkedin, add me, a blog or newsletter? I'll sign up. Discord? Let me know. Just let me know where you're active.