SPOOKY BOX / SLS CAMERA APP

A FIGURE IN THE CORNER.
OR A COAT ON A CHAIR.

What SLS camera apps actually do, what the Figures overlay in Spooky Box is, and how to film a session with the words on screen.

What an SLS camera does

SLS stands for structured light sensor. The first SLS rigs used a games-console depth camera, which projects a pattern of invisible infrared dots and works out distance from how the pattern lands. Software written for living-room games then fits a stick-figure skeleton to anything in view that is shaped roughly like a person.

Phone apps that use the name do the same job in software. A depth or body-pose model looks at the camera picture and draws a figure wherever it reads a body. These models are trained on ordinary photos of people, and they are quick to see one: a coat on a chair, a lamp and its shadow, a stack of boxes or a pattern on the wallpaper can all come out as a figure. That is normal behavior for the model, not a sign of anything in the room.

The Figures overlay in Spooky Box

Spooky Box has a Figures toggle in its camera view. Turn it on and an on-device body-pose model draws a stick figure over whatever it reads as a person, right or wrong. The app labels it exactly that way on screen while Figures is on.

• It runs on your phone. The model ships inside the app and uses no network. Nothing from the camera is sent anywhere.
• It is drawn into your pictures. While Figures is on, the stick figure goes into your photos and clips, along with the current word, its reason, the clock and the magnetic reading.
• It reads shapes, not people. It cannot tell a person from something shaped like one, and it knows nothing about who or what is there.
• It costs nothing. Figures, filming and sharing are part of the app; they are not part of the one-time unlock.

Filming a session with the words on screen

1. Start a session first. Set the phone on a steady surface and let it learn the room for five seconds.
2. Tap Camera. The session keeps running behind the camera, and the current word, its reason, the clock and the magnetic reading are drawn into the picture.
3. Take photos or record clips. Clips carry sound when you have allowed the microphone. You can switch between the front and back cameras and turn on the phone's light.
4. Keep the phone still. Readings taken while the phone is moving are thrown out, so a phone held in the hand gives the session little to read. Prop it up or use a small tripod; the picture is steadier too.
5. Look back afterwards. Photos and clips sit in the session log, where you can view, share or delete them. Nothing leaves your phone until you share it.

If Record the room is on and you start a clip with sound, the room recording stops for the rest of the session and the clip carries the sound. More on recording and replay is in Keep what the room said.

What a figure is, and is not

We added Figures because the overlay is part of how many people film a ghost hunt, and we wanted ours to say plainly what it is. A stick figure in a Spooky Box photo is a drawing made by a pose model. It is right when someone is standing there and wrong when a chair is. Either way, a figure shows what the model read and nothing more: it is not a sign that anyone, or anything, was there.

Spooky Box is a spirit box-style word app for Android 8.0 or later, on its way to Google Play. Read how it chooses a word and how to run a session on a ghost hunt, see the home page, or ask support.

Questions

Spooky Box is paranormal entertainment. It uses device sensor activity and a word engine to create atmospheric sessions. Generated words and sensor readings do not establish the presence of spirits or verified communication.