# bijection/sistine

Turn a MacBook into a Touchscreen with $1 of Hardware

Repository: https://github.com/bijection/sistine
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/sistine
Homepage: https://www.anishathalye.com/2018/04/03/macbook-touchscreen/
Language: Python
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: opencv, touchscreen, sistine
Last push: 2020-09-30T18:39:02+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 32/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3707, "days_push": 2163, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 3426, forks 198 (observed 2026-08-28T04:08:03.943660+00:00)

## What it is
Project Sistine is a proof-of-concept Python application that turns a MacBook into a touchscreen using a $1 mirror rig in front of the built-in webcam and computer vision to detect finger touches. It processes webcam video to translate finger contact on the screen into touch input events.

## Use cases
- turn a macbook into a touchscreen with a cheap mirror
- detect finger touches on a screen using a webcam
- build a diy touch input system with computer vision
- experiment with webcam-based touch detection
- convert camera video into touch events

## When to choose
- you want a fun hardware-plus-CV hack on a MacBook
- you need a low-cost touchscreen prototype and can tolerate rough accuracy
- you want to study classical computer vision finger-detection techniques

## When to avoid
- you need production-quality, reliable touch input
- you use a modern macOS with Python 3 - the project requires Python 2 and old OpenCV 3
- you want an actively maintained or supported tool

## Facets
- artifact type: application
- maturity: abandoned
- function: computer-vision, image-processing
- domain: computer-vision, hardware, developer-tools
- platform: python
- tags: touchscreen, webcam, proof-of-concept, opencv, human-input, macos

## Member repositories
- bijection/sistine (main) score 32

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:03.943660+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-29T18:37:52.836651+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/bijection/sistine (fetched 2026-08-28T04:08:03.943660+00:00, sha 32dc53537322)
  - homepage: https://www.anishathalye.com/2018/04/03/macbook-touchscreen/ (fetched 2026-08-29T09:32:18.607611+00:00, sha ecbde67e965a)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.