HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

Building a hair cutting robot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zBrbdU_y0s

⬐ sambroner

This guy is a legend. Awesome videos. A few of them seem productizable in a way most DIY-er videos don't, albeit in a limited run capacity.

He made a iPad lidar to "braille" converter that was really impressive, and I'm hopeful someone picks up the work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Au47gnXs0w

⬐ mfgrimm

Yeah that one is amazing. Also the auto-correcting basketball backboard that makes your shot always go in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FycDx69px8U&t=457s

⬐ ricksharp

Each of these projects is something I think I could probably figure out how to make in a year (but not really - I simply couldn't do the hardware side with my toolset).

Then I look at his youtube videos and see he is putting out one of these videos each week.

The level of productivity is insane.

For example, in the basketball 2.0, he mentioned doing the 1.0 version a few weeks before. Then in a few weeks, he is doing something equivalent to Mark Rober's dart board (that took Mark 2 years with help) - while creating other videos.

How is this possible?

⬐ Assossa

Mark Rober's dart board was much, much harder to create. The projectile was smaller and faster, and the board had to move to a much more precise location. Shane's backboard only has to track a normal speed basketball and has a decently sized margin of error. Not trying to discount Shane's work at all, it's still very impressive, but not nearly as difficult a problem as what Mark Rober solved.

⬐ war1025

It looks like he started his channel in March, so I'm guessing he just had a backlog of things he's been working on to make videos about.

⬐ 83

Large disposable income certainly helps - things come together a lot faster when you have proper tooling. Just looking at his site he has a cnc mill, plasma cutter, welder, access to a laser, casting furnace, 3d printers, etc. Looks like he's got the money to just buy the right gecko drives and linear actuators instead of scrounging for months to get parts off ebay.

⬐ dakiol

Maybe he has already worked on them before and it's just now that he's releasing the videos.

⬐ hanniabu

He has a very particular set of skills; skills he has acquired over a very long career. Skills that make his projects a nightmare for people like you.

⬐ pcurve

In the beginning I was afraid he was going to lose his ears... vacuum contraption reminds me of Flowbee on a 3d arm.

I think it's impressive feat of engineering. I'm sure he can really perfect it collaborating with a stylist.

⬐ jansan

For those fellow readers who do not know the Flowbee, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK7_VSpTyVY

Quote: "This ingenious device lets you give yourself and family perfect haircuts everytime!"

⬐ js2

This guy actually gives himself a decent haircut with one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4XKVEm11dI

⬐ davio

My buddy's nickname in HS was Flowbee. His mom cut his hair. It actually looked good, I think it was the uniform nature of it that earned him the name.

⬐ exhilaration

If anyone else suddenly had a flashback of Wayne's World where the Flowbee was parodied, here's the clip you're looking for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LrJDt-fPQI

⬐ dredmorbius

There's a similar device (possibly a Flowbee) used by the robot GERTY in Moon (2009).

https://invidio.us/watch?v=84Ewj-BOBuc

⬐ pmiller2

Yeah, my only reaction to “robot wielding sharp instruments within tens of millimeters of my scalp” is “nope, nope, nope!”

⬐ amINeolib

I was the complete opposite, maybe I'm a hater.

The hard part isn't done. Controlling servos and motors is school level work. Combining it with 3D, a 400 level class.

But it doesn't actually work. Saying "I can collaborate with a stylist" is not the bottleneck. It's the precision, the irregularities between clients, and obviously more.

Its a cool YouTube video if you don't know design Engineering, but I was utterly disappointed and was surprised to see people praising him..

⬐ JoeAltmaier

Yeah that's a hater. It was a youtube project showing some Engineering skills applied to a difficult problem. Not a product to be shipped.

⬐ amINeolib

You are inspiring me to make my own YouTube channel now!

⬐ JoeAltmaier

It seems expensive. I understood YouTube had reduced payments to content providers. Can it really support that machine shop? Or is the guy independently wealthy?

⬐ y7

I'm guessing the majority of his income for these videos comes from Patreon, although with his current 167 subscribers at $5 or $12 per month it's not a living wage.

⬐ ghaff

To a first approximation, no one should go into content creation (whether YouTube, a podcast, a book, a blog...) with the primary intent of making more than some token amount of money that makes driving for Uber seem like a pretty cushy gig.

Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it of course. Direct money (as opposed to supporting other activities) isn't really one of them though.

⬐ fortran77

I don't get all the hate here. Here's a charming guy making a fun video about an impractical robot to cut hair and showing how you can make a fairly complicated thing in a home shop that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

And people are disliking him because he's funny, good-looking, smart, and educational. C'mon. Don't be jealous of him.

⬐ amINeolib

The title is a outright lie.

Not jealous. I'm a design engineer that realize this didn't work.

⬐ jodrellblank

Which bit of it was unthinkable? A vacuum, servos, microswitches and control software are 1980s technology.

The depth sensing camera, but he didn't use that; the 3D printing components were a convenience but not necessary as he said himself; the 3D modelling program to define the locations on his head and angles to cut could have been done with older software. Was there anything which couldn't have been done by a sufficiently motivated person with tens of thousands of dollars of workshop (like he has) in 2010, 2000 or 1990?

⬐ aasasd

As an old prediction about robotic hair cutters goes:

— But people have different head shapes, what about that?

— Well, initially they do.

⬐ the_duke

Clearly inferior to Simone Giertz' revolutionary hair cutting drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQSh1MWIdVU

Looks like it is a tad more practical (and functional), though...

⬐ bitdotdash

Just watched this last night with my wife. Was cracking up the whole time. The combination of cheesy humor and engineering chops is fantastic. I also enjoyed the one he did about making a basketball back board that ensures you always make the shot. Good stuff.

⬐ Akronymus

I think you'd enjoy michael reeves. Altough that guy is a bit out of his mind.

https://www.youtube.com/c/MichaelReeves/videos

⬐ gala8y

Thought I was done with OP videos for the evening, but now this guy...

⬐ supernova87a

I had been thinking about rather than a robot, the thing I really need is actually just a camera and remote arms I control, that can help me cut the back of my head more accurately.

If I could see the back of my head in front of me in a way that's not reversed in the mirror, and use my own hands as normal but they do the work back there, all problems would be solved...

I don't need a smart robot, I just need an improved angle of using my own hands!

⬐ glitcher

Or with Chell's Portal gun you could cut the back of your hair directly :)

⬐ chansiky

I've been cutting my own hair for some time now, and I have to say that after a while you develop a certain level of proprioception for where the buzzer is at. I don't even look at the mirror for most of the time I'm cutting, only to check if I did it right. And almost always I know the instant I cut too much (because I get the same kind of cringe feeling you get right when you throw a basketball and know instantly that you missed).

Then again, I have a "good enough" attitude for haircuts - but people are genuinely surprised when I tell them I cut my own hair. I think this is because I've gotten better at cutting my own head of hair than what a random barber would be capable of.

⬐ krick

I actually think this isn't that far from a legit product. It is just an early prototype, the approach seems to be totally working, current problems pretty easy to fix, so it kind of makes me surprised cheap robotic barbershops aren't a thing yet.

(Attempts into jokes and acting in this video are painfully lame, though, it is much better when he just focuses on description of the actual project.)

⬐ new2628

As a counterpoint, I didn't care for the project itself so much and he had me cracking at the robot jokes.

⬐ VBprogrammer

His channel has only been running for a few months and I think he's still finding his style. I too prefer it when he sticks to describing the prototypes and what he tried to get these things to work. None of that takes away from the fact that he's doing some really cool projects and I appreciate that for what it is. I almost wish he'd do like Colin Furze does and split it into a showcase video and a build video.

⬐ runawaybottle

That’s all I could think as well. I for one welcome our new robot hair cutters.

⬐ amINeolib

It's extremely far from a usable product.

The fact he couldn't cut his own hair, means he can't cut different hair, or different styles, or different textures or head shapes. No testing completed either.

This is really nothing more than a YouTube video.

Source- Design Engineer

⬐ TeeWEE

Exactly how the first iPhone prototype was.... But you need to see past that, see the vision. I see robot haircutters everywhere in 10 years.

⬐ amINeolib

Everyone forgets about Blackberry...

Also I believe you are describing a general Apple quality.

⬐ suby

Liability seems like a show stopper. This thing could hurt someone if something goes wrong, which seems likely if in use by the general population. I also think a lot of people tend to like their barber.

⬐ robbrown451

One more way coronavirus lockdown is a threat to a whole lot of trades. Once it is over, not only will a whole lot of people have figured out that it isn't all that hard to cut your own hair or your spouse/family member's hair, but we'll have figured out how to have robots do it.

Same goes for a whole lot of other things. Education is probably going to take the biggest hit. I'm ok with this overall, but it's going to hurt a lot for some people.

⬐ polyanos

I think you are over selling it, sure we are gonna use some new tools but I don't think schools nor teachers are gonna disappear just yet. Education is more than just learning theories from a book/site/app/whatever.

⬐ robbrown451

I didn't say disappear. But a lot of people are realizing that other approaches are valid as well. (often people who were much more closed minded about such things prior to lockdown)

⬐ polyanos

I think you are overthinking it quite a bit.

⬐ davidedicillo

You sound like someone who hasn't cared about a child while trying to keep a full-time job. I bet many parents would support giving childcare/education professionals a raise after having to do the job themselves for a few months...

⬐ robbrown451

I actually am one of those parents. Childcare and education are actually two different things. They tend to be combined into one in schools, but that isn't the only approach.

There is also college education, which is a bit different. I could see many people choosing to simply pay for an institution to give them tests to prove they actually learned the material, while the actual learning is done independently. If you against this, well, you sound like someone who had their college paid for by their parents.

⬐ slazaro

I always thought that a hair cutting robot should use that static electricity trick to make your hair stand up straight, then it would be a matter of having your head immobilized, and then the problem is way easier to solve in a safe way.

⬐ knodi123

Maybe a dumb question, but I just don't see - from a pure haircutting perspective, how is the scissor approach better than a flowbee? i.e., why not just have regular electric clippers inside the vacuum channel?

⬐ kolinko

Because that mames it mire difficult and fun, I guess :)

⬐ knodi123

that's a perfectly valid answer, but it raises the additional question of why actual cheap haircut shops use scissors and fingers instead of a flowbee-style piece of equipment, too. :-)

⬐ ghaff

Based on the very limited reading I've done about it:

1.) It only really works for certain styles, lengths, and types of hair

2.) Cheap haircut shops are presumably mostly competing with home haircuts so if you start doing 5 minute haircuts with some gadget, your customers may start going "hmm" and go off and buy the gadget to use at home.

⬐ Aardwolf

Let's hope it goes better than this:

https://pbfcomics.com/comics/automatic-business/

⬐ cdnsteve

Pretty innovative first release that has major potential longer term as the product gets refined with possible industry disruption factor. Kudos to the creator!

⬐ jcmontx

This guy makes me feel like an inferior mind

⬐ slig

His channel is fantastic, be sure to check his other videos.

⬐ thdrdt

I like his way of thinking: don't create new parts for your prototype all the time when they don't work but just fix them quickly so they will work (with tape, nails, glue and what not). And only when the prototype works create new parts that look good.

First iterate, then make it look good.

⬐ syntaxing

That was an awesome video, I've been wanting to make something similar since I have been cutting my own hair. I am super envious of his workshop! Some of his designs are super neat like that "hair finger grabber". I love how its a cam mechanism.

⬐ thdrdt

Around 10:25 the time-lapse.

⬐ aiisjustanif

As someone with an afro, this is nightmare fuel.

⬐ perseverance

This is very cool actually. How often have we asked the barber to style our hair a particular way and then been disappointed.

⬐ frabert

This way you can be consistently disappointed! Jokes aside, the complexity of this kinds of applications is not easy to grasp until you see stuff like this

⬐ person_of_color

Woah, that’s one serious home laboratory.

⬐ kjhughes

He should team up with Debbie Sterling, who built a hair washing robot,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAF1CaCykwQ

and start a salon.

⬐ huhtenberg

Even taking the mullet into consideration, look how far we've come!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lgluqEiQow

⬐ nootropicat

You could turn it into a startup

There's definitely some reliable way to detect tissue (like ears) between the blades (capacitance?) so that a robot never cuts someone's ears off

⬐ OJFord

SawStop does so with its table saws - instead of losing a finger or worse, they barely nick you (I've seen at least one report of it triggering and not even drawing blood).

⬐ ricksharp

Wow, amazing work - the skillset includes everything from machining parts (Using a plasma cutter) to custom 3D software (for simulating and debugging).

⬐ _curious_

This is the second experiment/invention video of yours I've come across over the past year and equally enjoyable - keep up the great work!

⬐ grecy

> There is just something deeply satisfying about a mullet

For anyone that has never had a mullet, I wholeheartedly agree. Gotta do it once in your life!

⬐ mooreed

This made my day. Great video. incredible project, and funny too.

Spoiler - he gets a robotically perfect mullet because the scissors can reach the lower neck line.

⬐ drited

I wish he kept the Mullet. It truly was art.

⬐ jeffrallen

This guy is totally insane. And his wife is a saint.

⬐ emrahcom

very nice work

⬐ qwertox

Robot: "Did you do anything fun this weekend?"

Dude: "It was really sad, my dog died"

Robot: "Oh well, cool"

⬐ LeroyJenkins19

This is so cool!

⬐ Proven

Beta testing of shaving robots must look like the shaving scene from Airplane...

⬐ qqn

So this is how Mark Zuckerberg does it!

⬐ LeroyJenkins19

This is super cool!

⬐ villgax

Never run with scissors!

⬐ oriettaxx

mmh, it could be much much easier: why not using an air vacuum to have the hair perpendicular to the skull? :)

⬐ amelius

Or use electrostatic energy to pull the hair away before cutting. But I think vacuuming would work best.

⬐ Retric

It does use a vacuum.

⬐ kiteloop

Did you not watch the video?

⬐ oriettaxx

Yes, you are perfectly right, I just saw part of it, missing completely the point.

I think it would be much easier to just vacuum all hairs (or use electrostatic as suggested), so to have all hairs perpendicular to the skull, and then cut them out like you would cut your garden. If, and only if, hairs grow uniformly then by cutting 1cm of all hairs you will get the same (expensive, human made) cut you had X time ago :)

I scrolled fast the video for an image of him with all hair up :) I did not see it and I superficially judged it.

⬐ None

None

⬐ mbrameld

That's what he did. You should watch the video, it's pretty entertaining!

⬐ alias_neo

Is nobody else going to comment on the disgraceful number of adverts? I got a couple of minutes in, and mid sentence a couple of unskippable ads interject, so I skip forwards bit and a couple more, again, miss sentence. It's annoying and I just gave up all interest in what might otherwise have been an interesting video.

⬐ koziserek

Was there any ad there at all? [hint: uBlock origin]

⬐ RandomBacon

Maybe everyone else is using an adblocker?

I used Firefox uBlock Origin and didn't get any ads.

⬐ alias_neo

Interesting point. I also use uBlock Origin (what sane person doesn't these days?) but I also browse HN primarily on mobile and the video opened in the app, where of course uBlock doesn't work. I even have a PiHole, also doesn't work for YouTube.

I think it's the first time I've ever seen a YouTube video linked on HN.

⬐ wiz21c

That's absurd.

The energy it takes to make such a machine, to maintain it, etc. is probably so much more than what it takes to have a human doing it. Plus the fact that the human will actually talk to me.

I can understand that humanity looks forward to more automation. But in this case, it seems we loose so much. Plus the fact that, as with many manual/creative skills, a robot is nowhere close being able to work as good as a human.

Just one more example of people who wrongly assimilate "innovation" to "progress".

⬐ wtetzner

Except that in many places you can't go to a human to cut your hair, because of COVID-19.

⬐ tomerico

Meta point: I think that this channel illustrates well the transition from personal blogs to youtube videos.

If you go to his projects blog, https://shane.engineer/ you could see very detailed blog posts in the past that go deeply into the engineering, including code snippets. However, he only really go traction when starting to publish youtube videos, specifically youtube video with a clickbait subject (such as a self aiming basketball hoop).

What YouTube provides is a highly competitive environment that provides creators with constant feedback. This allowed him to identify and his niche as he uploaded more videos. With YouTube, the exposure these projects receive is orders of magnitude higher, while empowering its creators to be self sustainable with ads (and sponsors, patreon, and merch) revenue.

At the end of the day, I think it's a positive change, as it allows more people to create high quality content independently, and in a rewarding way (vs volunteering).

⬐ NoodleIncident

> specifically youtube video with a clickbait subject (such as a self aiming basketball hoop)

How can the subject of a video be clickbait? The essence of clickbait is that an interesting title tricks you into clicking on uninteresting content. If the content is as interesting as the title, then it's not clickbait, you're just making something people want to watch.

⬐ tomerico

Agree that I used the wrong term, especially given the negative connotation. The point is that he is now limiting himself to topics that would appeal to the mass audience and solicit a click. If you look at earlier videos in the channel, the diversity of topics is more varied and not necessarily popular subjects.

With that said I think that this is good, it allows Shane to reach a larger audience, and has definitely increased the scope and frequency of projects, which seem like passion projects and fun.

⬐ amelius

The subject can be clickbait if the quality of the content doesn't live up to your expectations.

E.g. you expected an engineering approach to building a self aiming basketball hoop but the video turned out to be showing only a lame and failed attempt at such by a high school student trying to milk their YouTube channel.

⬐ amINeolib

Because it's a lie. He didn't make such a robot.

I found it uninteresting especially thinking you could get your hair cut from a robot.

I think there is a gap between people who have never programmed with electricity and Engineers. If you have never controlled a motor, this is future tech.

If you are a design engineer, this simply doesn't work.

⬐ ghaff

That seems a particularly odd use of the term given that, as you say, the title is mostly descriptive.

However, more broadly some people seem to use the term for anything that isn't just blandly descriptive. Headline writers have been pulling out interesting facts or making clever puns or whatever device to persuade people to read stories since before there were clicks. The average headline in The Economist probably qualifies as clickbait if cleverness is off the table.

⬐ smoe

I think youtube has some amazing content and creators, but at least for the kind I like I almost never discover them trough youtube itself but only via external means such as discussion forums, friends, etc.

Scrolling trough the home page or even video sidebar, altough heavily personalized, doesn't feel that much different than apathicly zapping trough tv stations in the past. Sure, YT gets the topics mostly correct, but the results are so heavily skewed towards shallow infotainment that is easily consumable and advertiser friendly, that it has become completly useless to me.

⬐ mrfusion

It sucks for people aren’t videogenic though.

⬐ smoe

I think voice is more problematic. There are a bunch of channel that I would love content wise, but that I find straining to watch for more than a few minutes because of the audio/acoustic quality or their voices and dialects/accents. The latter, not to be mean and it is not the peoples fault, but not everyone has a voice that is pleasant to everyone else to listen to for extended periods of time.

⬐ dylan604

or for people not wanting to watch videos. if a video is a supplemental part of a well written blog, then so be it. however, the video tends to be replacing the well written blog while leaving out the finer details the blog once provided.

⬐ ghaff

I think it's a combination of a lot of people are more biased towards watching a video than reading compared to some of us AND the fact the a lot of people find it a lot easier to narrate a video than it is to write a decent blog post especially if they also have to add photos etc.

⬐ mrfusion

I have a theory that half the population struggles with reading. They can read to get by but they find reading an article or blog post to be a struggle and certainly not entertaining.

⬐ ghaff

Even if that's an exaggeration, I think there are lots of people who would much rather watch a video than read more than a paragraph or so.

⬐ staycoolboy

Have you SEEN ElectroBoom and his monobrow?

:)

I'm looking forward to the day when I can walk, unplucked, down the US streets and not get funny looks due to remnants of my middle-eastern heritage!

LONG LIVE THE BROW!

⬐ stallmanite

As a huge ElectroBoom fan I’ve got to say the monobrow is actually part of the charm.

⬐ dredmorbius

CGP Grey.

⬐ kiba

There are tons of DIY video that didn't really feature the person's face, or isn't really necessary.

⬐ njharman

Voice quality, speaking mannerisms, etc. are extremely critical. Probably more so that visual. It's a major boon having a charismatic personality whether you look good or not.

A video with just poor sound quality (bad mics, noise) but otherwise excellent is nearly unwatchable. Same with a nasally, monotone, dry and boring speaker.

⬐ 29athrowaway

Right. For example, the lockpicking lawyer has millions of views. I have not seen every video, but the ones I've seen do not feature any faces, just lockpicking.

⬐ hombre_fatal

Binging with Babish didn't even show his face until he was popular: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJHA_jMfCvEnv-3kRjTCQXw

He basically popularized a whole genre of "here are my rolled-up sleeved forearms doing things" video framing.

⬐ ngngngng

He has some really nice looking forearms though.

⬐ ozim

I was thinking that in one way podcasts and videos are better than blogs. You have to put more effort in stealing audio/video content, with blog you can wget all stuff and automatically shove it in some link farm. Even if someone stills your blog by translating it, I assume it would take not as much effort as making video or podcast from start. That said I have seen screen readers on youtube that steal news content from smaller news sites, slapping some photos from article. Text stuff can be automated quite quick, maybe with deep fakes on video it will be soon possible to steal video content as well. But I assume it is still quite harder.

⬐ staycoolboy

I guess it depends on your goal:

If you want to reach a large audience, you need a platform with a large audience. If you want to just publish something for the sake of archiving it, you don't need a large platform.

It's a bit of a tautology.

Shane wants to be a creator, so he needs to play in that competitive space. Which I guess is part of what being a self-sustaining creator is all about.

I have no evidence to back this up, but it seems to me that trying to make a living as a creator is akin to become a rockstar: far less likely than just putting the effort in to get a job in engineering.

EDIT: After scanning his blog, he has tens of thousands of dollars of equipment, or more. (Yes, I am jealous, but that is besides the point.) Perhaps money isn't a problem for him, but I don't know if this is BECAUSE he is a successful maker/creater, or in spite of it. Some catch-22 there.

⬐ MayeulC

Thank you for sharing the link. I prefer to read blogs.

The key issue here is discoverability. We used to have search engines, but with SEO tricks and Google wanting to prop its platforms higher, that doesn't seem to work anymore.

Then, there is the matter of following the blog for updates. Not everyone knows what a RSS feed is. Heck, I wanted to subscribe, but there's no meta tag, nothing in the footer or about page that gives a link to an RSS feed. I even looked at the HTML, hoping to know which blog engine this was running, then looked for its common RSS feed URLs [1], but that didn't work.

I don't disagree with your other points, but If I ran a blog, I would do it for myself and my readers, not as a billboard for advertisers to show them ads.

[1]: https://github.com/getgrav/grav-plugin-feed

⬐ betenoire

The key issue here is discoverability...

Yet here we are discovering it, specifically because he made the video

⬐ swsieber

That is the point - youtube makes him a lot more popular not because it's inherently better, but because there is better discoverability on youtube than on blogs.

⬐ Apofis

Medium exists...

⬐ betenoire

ah, I misread read that :) thanks