Show HN: Alto – Video chat using animated avatars that move and react as you do

Hey HN!

I’m wenbo and I created Alto, short for alone together. The app's purpose is born out of the necessity to meet and converse with others while preserving privacy and comfort.

I wanted to create a safe virtual space for people to connect without worrying about how they look and what they might see. I also didn’t want to sacrifice the visual cues that help human beings communicate in more meaningful ways.

You’ll speak as you normally do, and through your webcam, you’ll animate an avatar with your movements. Users you chat with will hear you and only see your avatar.

I built the app by integrating Pose Animator (https://github.com/yemount/pose-animator), which processes camera frames in-browser and animates SVG characters, with the codebase of a side project.

Future direction:

- Higher fidelity and more diverse avatars

- 3d virtual space for immersive experience

- Spatial audio

Built with Elixir + Phoenix LiveView + Alpine.js + TailwindCSS + WebRTC.

Looking forward to your feedback!