The system is making finger detection errors; what can I do to fix it?

If the system appears to be making errors, there are a number of Troubleshooting steps that you can follow.

  • The most likely cause of system errors is poor lighting. Please see the Lighting Guide.

  • If another finger is covering the finger pressing the key, you may get an incorrect error; please see the following section.

  • You may find that turning off your keyboard illumination helps. If your finger isn’t covering the letter label on the key when you press it, the light from the LED underneath the key can sometimes make the system detect light blue.

  • The Finger Recognition system also needs considerable computing power, between the computer vision functions and using the webcam. You may find performance improves if you don’t have a lot of other applications running.

Why do I need to keep my hands flat?

Flat hands, anchored at the Home Row Position with the index fingers on the ’F’ and ’K’ keys, are the foundation of touch typing. This is where proficiency and speed develop from.


For the Finger Recognition to work accuractely, it needs to see the finger that is pressing the key.

If a student makes her hands go vertical (say in order to look at the keys, to see where a particular key is), then what can happen is that the system will see another finger, not the one actually pressing the key. This is because the other finger is getting in between the camera and the one pressing the key; it is covering up, or occluding the other finger, as you can see here:

The student’s right hand starts going vertical, and though she is pressing the ’O’ key with the correct ring finger, she hears a TINK, because the camera / computer sees her yellow middle finger. (After which she flattens her hand out, and the second time she presses the key with her ring finger, it gets correctly detected as orange, as this time the yellow finger isn’t in the way.)

So it is very important to keep your hands flat. Both in order to build skill and speed, and in order for the Finger Recognition system to perform accurately.

Once she’s become familiar with it, the Finger Recognition system also helps the student find the right key without have to move her hands. Since the fingers on screen are translucent, she can see through them to the letters on the keys.

Why can’t I see my index finger on screen? My pinky?

If you aren’t seeing, or are only partially seeing one or more of your fingers, then you can fix this by improving your lighting (please see the Lighting Guide).

For example, if your lighting is too dark, then you may lose the pinkies, as there isn’t enough light being reflected from the darker spandex material.

On the other hand if your lighting is too bright, then you may not see the right index finger, as the light reflected off its rather light color can wash it out.

What is this visual noise on the screen?

Visual noise on screen — pixels of video that are not your fingers — can be corrected by improving your lighting. The system filters out any colors not in our BrightFingers palette — red, orange, yellow, blue, light-blue — but certain types of lighting can create problems. If your laptop’s case is aluminum, for example, some of the light reflected off of the aluminum can be misinterpreted as light blue, and therefore be visible on screen.

This doesn’t impact the accuracy of the system, it only creates a little visual distraction.

Most students filter this out, as they’re concentrating on pressing the correct key with the correct finger, and those tasks use their full attention. If you’re finding that you or your student is bothered by the noise, then the simple solution is improving your lighting (please see the Lighting Guide).

If I use the wrong finger 3 times in a row, why does the Lesson move forward?

We do this for two reasons.

First, it means that you can get on with things, that you’re not simply stuck; if it is the system that is making the errors, then at least you can keep going after another two keystrokes.

Second, if it turns out it is you who is making the mistake, then it’s not just a free ride, so to speak. If every time you have to press that key you have to press it two extra times, then sooner or later you’ll come to realize that maybe you’re not using the correct finger, and will take the time to correct your mistake.

What is Lighting Calibration?

Lighting Calibration is a command you can use if you’re having trouble with your lighting, so that the system is more accurate.

It uses the actual light that’s hitting your gloved fingers, to determine exactly which parts of the light spectrum are assigned to each finger.

We don’t do this by default because the system will handle most lighting situations well. Performing the Lighting Calibration requires an extra step. It’s easy to do, but we have found that not having the extra step is preferable to most learners (provided that it’s working well).

 
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