Touchwood: my feeds only unlock after an open-weight model sees me outside

Description and use

Touchwood forces users to go outside to unlock feeds, employing an on‑device CLIP model to verify outdoor photos before granting temporary access.

Problem

Users spend excessive time on doomscroll sites; need a way to enforce outdoor activity before accessing feeds.

Outcome

Touchwood successfully enforces outdoor activity before allowing access to feeds, using on‑device vision to validate photos and a lightweight PWA for quests.

Workflow

• Install the Touchwood browser extension to block feeds.
• Open the Touchwood PWA on a phone and tap "Find me a quest".
• The app selects a nearby real place from OpenStreetMap and provides walking directions.
• Walk to the location; the app gives compass guidance and buzzes upon arrival.
• Take a photo of the target (e.g., water).
• The on‑device CLIP ViT‑B/32 model checks the photo for outdoors and target presence.
• If both checks pass, the app generates a one‑time 6‑digit code.
• Enter the code on the blocked page to unlock feeds for 30 minutes.
• After the period, the feeds lock again.
• Repeat as desired.

Evidence

A browser extension blocks the sites I lose hours to. When I hit one, I don't get a guilt-trip timer. I get a quest.

Source

When I arrive, it buzzes and chimes. I take the photo, and an open-weight vision model running on the phone checks two things: am I actually outdoors, and is that actually water?

Source

The app works on its own: quests, the on-device photo check, the journal, streaks and stamps. The browser extension adds the lock, and the 6-digit code from a finished quest unlocks it.

Source