Stare (AI Staring Competition)

The internet's first real-time AI powered staring competition.

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Vision

Create the world's simplest competitive web game:

• No downloads.
• No complicated rules.
• No expensive hardware.
• The AI acts as an impartial referee.

Open your camera, establish focus, and see who breaks first.

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Core Rules & AI Referee Logic

1. Eye Aspect Ratio (EAR) Evaluation:

   • Calculated continuously at 30–60 FPS using 468 MediaPipe facial landmarks: $$\text{EAR} = \frac{|p_{160} - p_{144}| + |p_{158} - p_{153}|}{2 \cdot |p_{33} - p_{133}|}$$
   • Classic Mode: Natural micro-blinks (100–250ms) permitted. Eyes closed $> 350\text{ms}$ = Loss.
   • No-Blink Mode: Any blink $> 80\text{ms}$ = Instant Loss.
   • Survival Mode: Endless gaze endurance with global high score tracking.

2. 3D Head Pose Orientation:

   • Computes real-time Yaw (horizontal), Pitch (vertical), and Roll (tilt).
   • Looking away ($|\text{Yaw}| > 22^\circ$), looking upward ($> 20^\circ$), or looking down triggers an immediate violation whistle.

3. Anti-Cheat & Liveness Verification:

   • Challenge-response verification ("Smile at camera", "Raise eyebrows", "Tilt head slightly left", "Blink twice").
   • Luminance and micro-movement analysis prevents photo and looped video replay attacks.

4. Multiplayer & Matchmaking:

   • WebRTC Peer-to-Peer video streams.
   • Synchronized 3-2-1 countdown with millisecond stopwatch.
   • ELO Ranked queue (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, Master, Legend, Top 100).
   • 8-Player Single Elimination Bracket Tournament.
   • Custom Friendly rooms with shareable URLs and configurable blink thresholds.
   • Procedural Web Audio API sound effects (no external audio assets required).

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Environment variables (Vercel & Firebase)

To host on Vercel with Firebase, configure the following environment variables in your Vercel Project Settings (Settings -> Environment Variables):

Variable Name	Description	Example
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_API_KEY	Firebase Web API Key	AIzaSyD-sample-key-1234
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_AUTH_DOMAIN	Firebase Auth Domain	stare-app.firebaseapp.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_PROJECT_ID	Firebase Project ID	stare-app
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_STORAGE_BUCKET	Firebase Storage Bucket	stare-app.appspot.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_MESSAGING_SENDER_ID	FCM Messaging Sender ID	123456789012
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_APP_ID	Firebase Web App ID	1:123456:web:abcd1234
NEXT_PUBLIC_FIREBASE_DATABASE_URL	Realtime DB URL for WebRTC	https://stare-app-default-rtdb.firebaseio.com
NEXT_PUBLIC_APP_URL	Deployed Vercel Domain	https://stare.vercel.app

Note: Stare includes an automated client-side fallback provider, allowing the entire application and AI referee engine to operate seamlessly out of the box even before Firebase credentials are configured.

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Tech Stack

• Framework: Next.js 14 (App Router, React 18, TypeScript)
• Styling: Tailwind CSS (Minimalist neutral dark palette inspired by Apple, Linear, and Stripe)
• Computer Vision & AI: MediaPipe FaceLandmarker, 468 Facial Landmarks, Eye Aspect Ratio (EAR), 3D Perspective Head Pose
• Signaling & Database: Firebase Firestore, Realtime Database, WebRTC Peer-to-Peer
• Audio: Web Audio API procedural oscillator synthesis (countdown beeps, referee whistles, victory fanfares)
• Deployment: Vercel

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Local Development

git clone https://github.com/GraphicMiles/Peekaboo.git
cd Peekaboo
npm install
npm run dev

Visit http://localhost:3000 to run the application.