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Air Canvas – Hand Gesture Drawing App

Creator: tubakhxn

Air Canvas turns your webcam into an invisible paintbrush. Wave your hand in mid-air and watch smooth digital ink appear in real time, powered by OpenCV for video capture and MediaPipe Hands for landmark tracking.

Features

  • Real-time hand landmark detection with finger skeleton overlays
  • Gesture-controlled drawing: point to draw, make a fist to pause, show an open palm to clear
  • Smooth, anti-aliased strokes and a live cursor indicator for precise control
  • Dual-window display: augmented webcam feed plus a dedicated canvas view
  • Graceful handling of webcam availability and keyboard interrupt exits

Requirements

  • Python 3.10 or newer
  • Webcam or USB camera compatible with OpenCV
  • pip for dependency management

Installation

python -m venv .venv
.venv\Scripts\activate  # On macOS/Linux use: source .venv/bin/activate
python -m pip install --upgrade pip
python -m pip install -r requirements.txt

Run the App

python main.py

Press q in the Air Canvas window to exit.

Gesture Mapping

Gesture How Action
Draw Extend the index finger while folding the rest Paint continuous strokes
Pause Form a fist (all fingers folded) Lift the digital pen without clearing the canvas
Clear Display an open palm (all fingers extended) Reset the canvas to start over

Tips & Troubleshooting

  • Ensure good, even lighting so MediaPipe can detect landmarks reliably.
  • If the wrong gesture triggers, keep your hand within the frame and slow down transitions between poses.
  • Strokes follow the index finger tip; move the whole hand rather than bending only the finger for smoother curves.
  • If the webcam cannot be opened, close other apps that may be using it and rerun python main.py.

Folder Structure

air-canvas/
├── main.py              # Application entry point & UI loop
├── gesture_detector.py  # MediaPipe Hands wrapper + gesture logic
├── canvas.py            # Canvas class for persistent drawing
├── utils.py             # Helper utilities for rendering overlays
├── requirements.txt     # Runtime dependencies
└── README.md            # Project guide

Add your own screenshots or GIFs of the running app directly to this README to showcase results.

Fork & Extend the Project

  1. Visit the GitHub repository and click Fork to copy it to your account.
  2. Clone your fork locally: git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/air-canvas.git.
  3. Add the original project as an upstream remote for easy syncing: 
    git remote add upstream https://github.com/tubakhxn/air-canvas.git
git fetch upstream
git checkout main
git merge upstream/main
  4. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/new-gesture), implement changes, and push to your fork.
  5. Open a pull request against tubakhxn/air-canvas to share improvements.

Issues and enhancements are welcome—keep the gestures flowing!