rosehahah / the-machine

# THE MACHINE
*"You are being watched."*
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**▶ Explore the console in your browser**  ·  Run it on your own cameras  ·  How it was made
A fan-made, open-source recreation of **The Machine** from *Person of Interest*. Its point of view (the MPOV) runs on your own Mac and iPhone cameras: it boxes everyone it sees, recognizes you as ADMIN, notices a knife or a fall, and issues a number. It never says why. Alongside it is a multi-page console (camera wall, subjects, cases, network, map, log) on a mock city of 500 people.
Every box, label and colour was checked against frames from all five seasons. Anything the show never showed is marked as invented, in the code and below.
 The animation above is the landing page of the demo site: stock footage, real person tracks, and a scripted identification (nobody in the footage is enrolled). 
**With deep thanks to *Person of Interest*.** To Jonathan Nolan, Greg Plageman, J.J. Abrams, the writers, the cast and the crew: thank you for five seasons, for Harold and John, Root and Shaw, Fusco and Carter, Bear, and for The Machine. We love this show so much. This project exists because of you.
## The console
All six pages share one timeline at the bottom: scrub through seven days of the mock city, or watch it live.
| | |
|---|---|
| **1 FEEDS** · camera wall, 32 real Manhattan intersections | **1 FEEDS** · one camera |
| **2 SUBJECTS** · dossiers: PRIMARY ASSET IDENTIFIED | **3 CASES** · the numbers |
| **4 NETWORK** · who was seen with whom | **5 MAP** · Manhattan, active operations |
| **6 LOG** · the system log | **MPOV** · the live view, running locally |
 Screenshots of this project running on mock data and Mixkit stock footage. No frames from the show. 
## What the MPOV does
- **Boxes every person** on your Mac camera and your iPhone (Continuity Camera), with the show's square head-and-shoulders box: dashed sides, solid corners, tick marks.
- **Recognizes you.** Enroll yourself as `ADMIN` and your box flashes from white to yellow, the dossier card opens and it says `GOOD EVENING, ADMIN.` Other roles: `PRIMARY ASSET`, `SECONDARY ASSET`, `ANALOG INTERFACE`, `IRRELEVANT`.
- **Follows you** from camera to camera.
- **Judges threats.** Someone picks up a knife, scissors, a bat or a gun: white box with red corners. If they act on it: red box, `THREAT`. Someone falls: `SUBJECT DOWN`.
- **Issues numbers.** A social security number in the show's `###-00-####` format and a phrase in the phonetic alphabet, with two rings of a payphone. Relevant and irrelevant lists, a macOS notification, and optionally an iMessage to your phone.
## Quick start
macOS only. Needs uv and `ffmpeg`.
 [code] 
The first run sets up Python, downloads the models (~75 MB, `tools/fetch_models.sh`) and the stock footage for the console (`tools/build_clips.py`). That takes a few minutes. Then your browser opens **http://localhost:8000** (the MPOV); the console is at **http://localhost:8000/console**. Press `Ctrl+