Anki Gesture Control

An addon for Anki that allows you to control your reviews using head and hand gestures, providing a hands-free learning experience.

Features

• Hands-Free Control: Answer cards, scroll, and perform other actions without touching your keyboard or mouse.
• Gesture-Based Actions: Use intuitive head nods, turns, and hand gestures to control Anki.
• Customizable Gesture Mapping: Easily remap gestures to a wide range of Anki actions to fit your workflow.
• Adjustable Sensitivity: Fine-tune the sensitivity of gesture detection to match your preferences and environment.
• On-the-Fly Recalibration: Quickly recalibrate your neutral head position for optimal performance.
• Camera Preview: An optional real-time camera feed to help you position yourself and see the gesture detection in action.
• Automatic Start/Stop: Configure the addon to automatically start gesture detection when you begin a review session and stop when you're done.
• Configurable Shortcuts: Set your own global keyboard shortcuts for common actions like toggling gesture control and recalibrating.

Installation and Setup

1. Install the Addon: Download the addon from the AnkiWeb addon page or install it manually.
2. Run the Onboarding Wizard: The first time you start Anki after installing the addon, an onboarding wizard will appear.
   • All Platforms: The wizard can automatically download a portable Python environment for your platform (Windows, macOS Intel, macOS Apple Silicon, or Linux), so no manual setup is needed!
   • Alternative: The wizard will also check for an existing system Python 3.9 installation if you prefer to use that instead.
   • The wizard sets up a dedicated environment for the gesture recognition library.

How to Use

1. Start/Stop Gesture Control:
   • Go to the Gesture Control menu in Anki's main window and select Start Gesture Control.
   • Alternatively, use the default shortcut Ctrl+Shift+G.
2. Perform Gestures:
   • Position yourself in front of your webcam.
   • If the camera preview is enabled, you will see a window with your video feed.
   • Perform one of the supported gestures (see the table below).
3. Recalibrate:
   • If you change your position or the gesture detection feels off, you can recalibrate at any time.
   • Go to the Gesture Control menu and select Recalibrate Gestures.
   • Alternatively, use the default shortcut Ctrl+Shift+R.

Gestures

The addon recognizes the following gestures. You can customize the action associated with each gesture in the configuration settings.

| Gesture | Default Action | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | Nod Right | Answer Good / Show Answer | Quickly turn your head to the right and back to the center. | | Nod Left | Answer Again | Quickly turn your head to the left and back to the center. | | Nod Up | Answer Hard | Quickly nod your head up and back to the center. | | Nod Down | Answer Easy | Quickly nod your head down and back to the center. | | Look Right (Hold) | Suspend Card | Turn your head to the right and hold the position. | | Look Left (Hold) | Bury Card | Turn your head to theleft and hold the position. | | Look Up (Hold) | Scroll Up | Look up and hold the position to scroll up on long cards. | | Look Down (Hold) | Scroll Down | Look down and hold the position to scroll down on long cards. | | Fist | Start/Stop Review | Make a fist with your hand in front of the camera. | | Swipe Left (Palm)| Undo | Swipe your open palm from right to left across the camera's view. |

Actions

You can map any of the gestures to the following actions:

• Answer Good / Show Answer: Marks the card as "Good" or shows the answer if it's hidden.
• Answer Again: Marks the card as "Again".
• Answer Hard: Marks the card as "Hard".
• Answer Easy: Marks the card as "Easy".
• Scroll Down: Scrolls down on the current card.
• Scroll Up: Scrolls up on the current card.
• Start/Stop Review: Toggles the review session.
• Undo: Undoes the last action.
• Bury Card: Buries the current card.
• Suspend Card: Suspends the current card.
• Recalibrate: Recalibrates the neutral head position.
• None: No action.

Configuration

You can access the configuration dialog by going to the Gesture Control menu and selecting Configuration. The settings are divided into several tabs:

• Gestures: Map gestures to actions.
• Sensitivity: Adjust the thresholds for gesture detection, such as how far you need to turn your head or how long you need to hold a pose.
• Advanced: Configure more advanced options, including:
  • Behavioral settings like auto-start and the camera preview.
  • Fine-tune the underlying MediaPipe settings for face and hand detection.
• Shortcuts: Change the keyboard shortcuts for toggling gesture control and recalibrating.

Requirements

• Anki 2.1.50+
• A webcam
• All Platforms: Automatic portable Python environment download supported (Windows, macOS Intel, macOS Apple Silicon, and Linux). Alternatively, you can use an existing system Python 3.9 installation.