Senses
Senses is a project I started almost two years ago. Video tag was barely supported on WebKit and Gecko, and 3D transforms were just introduced to WebKit. I saw it all together in a second. In technical words: a super awesome media player webapp!
What is Senses?
Senses aims to be a multi-media player that can connect to several servers to retrieve different sources of media. Call it the decentralized, open-source, fullscreen YouTube.
It is not my intention to compete with anyone, rather make this beautiful technology and interface that runs on it.
Fullscreen and interface
One of the key aspects of Senses is that is fullscreen. With a browser navigation bar on the top.
You control everything with four keys, aided with a blue selection box that tells you where you are standing on.
- Left and Right moves the cursor forward or backwards. Same applies for video seeking.
- Up or Escape goes one step back in navigation.
- Down or Enter executes a command, or plays/pauses.
The most remarkable aspect is it's simplicity. With four keys you can do everything. You can sort of still use the mouse, but I discourage that. The magic is using a remote controller and sending those four simple keys to the host computer. Not natively supported on browsers, but there is an App for that.
Decentralized sources
While not supported at this moment, the aim of this software is to rely on different servers and chain fallbacks in case one is down. This makes media sharing open, distributed, taking control out of a single company, and ensuring availability. Your mommy told you not to put all the eggs in one basket!
Similar to Debian repositories, you may add server listings where to peek source's content and activate them. While the main idea is to provide official listings, the software will be open to accept non-official listings and servers. So you have great out-of-box experience and freedom in one softwarehouse (new word, take notes).
Uhm what about copyrights?
Ah yes, your beautiful capitalist world made you think you must pray to copyrights and lawyers. Still none of us want to be send to jail, even if some random people decided that humans can own stuff, in a world created by god where no one owns anything, as everything is part of the universe. Did you know that what Hitler did in Germany, was legal? Martin Luther King words.
So again, while laws are fictional, they are imposed to us, so to prevent being chased by an institution and put to jail, the project will not provide access to copyrighted material. And third-party listings should follow as well. Senses will never block sources as that would be morally incorrect, so it's up to you guys.
On the other hand, Senses promotes original, independent, capitalism-free videos, series, movies and music. Creative Commons and stuff like that, you got it.
Open-source
Senses will be open source (it kinda is already, it's written in JavaScript). But the code is a little bit messy, so I will be GitHubbing it when I'm done polishing it.
Can I try it?
Yes! There is a very limited functionality version only with the most unoptimized code in history.
Just make sure you run it in a maximized window or fullscreen, as that is the original work's intention. Widescreen is a plus.
And most importantly: Safari or Chrome for now!
Enjoy it! I would like to know what you think of it. Disqus it ;)