AI Tool Tracks Blinking to Prevent Dry Eyes During Screen Time

Many people experience dry, tired eyes after long hours in front of screens due to reduced blinking rates. Traditional advice like the 20-20-20 rule is hard to follow during focused work. To address this, a user developed a simple AI-powered tool using Gemini that monitors blinking through the device's selfie camera and alerts the user with a sound when blinking frequency drops below a set threshold.

The tool operates locally on the device using Google's MediaPipe Face Mesh AI model, ensuring user privacy by not sending video data to external servers. It includes a dynamic 120-second monitoring window to reduce false alarms and a background mode using Picture-in-Picture, allowing users to continue working uninterrupted while the tool runs.

To use the tool on a phone, the HTML file must be hosted on an HTTPS-supported website like Netlify or Vercel to enable camera access. From there, Chrome can convert the site into a lightweight APK app with a custom icon and splash screen. This project demonstrates how AI now enables anyone to create personalized, functional applications quickly without coding skills, a process that previously required months of programming expertise.