How to use IR Emitters on Linux

I wanted to use Face unlock on Linux and receive all the same features as Windows Hello. Using howdy and this guide, you can!

Requirements

git clone https://github.com/EmixamPP/linux-enable-ir-emitter.git
sudo apt install ffmpeg

Edit the config

You need to update the config in the file enable-ir-emitter.c. Unit, Selector and Size are the important values to update.

Example values

These are the values I used on my Dell XPS. If they do not work for you, you can find details how to discover the values following this guide. Although, its quite the process.

 struct uvc_xu_control_query query = {
        .unit = 0x04, //2 first symbols of wIndex
        .selector = 0x06, //2 first symbols of wValue
        .query = UVC_SET_CUR,
        .size = 9, //wLength
        .data = (__u8*)&data,
    };

Run the script on startup

You need this service to be running in order to use the IR cameras.

sudo cp enable-ir-emitter /usr/local/bin
sudo cp enable-ir-emitter.service /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable enable-ir-emitter
sudo systemctl start enable-ir-emitter