FAQ

Privacy and faces

Does Yewee recognise people?

No. Yewee finds faces and follows them from frame to frame, the way a camera's autofocus finds a face. It does not know or work out who anyone is.

• No facial recognition. Nothing in Yewee identifies a person, and there is no way to add it.
• No stored images. Frames pass through memory and out to the feeds. Yewee never saves a picture or a clip to disk, and nothing from the camera goes into the log or a crash report.
• No matching. There is no database of faces, and nothing is compared against one, on the machine or anywhere else.
• Numbers aren't identities. The #12 on a face means "the 12th face tracked since the source started". If that person leaves the shot and comes back, they get a new number.

The panel's footer says it too: finds and follows faces — does not identify people.

Are the expression labels reading people's emotions?

Not in any meaningful sense. When Expressions is on, each badge gets a word (happy, surprise and so on) from a small model's quick guess at a face's shape in one moment. It is a visual effect for the screen: often wrong, never recorded, and not a measure of how anyone feels. Don't use it to make any decision about a person.

It is off by default because inferring emotions from faces is regulated in some places, including the EU, and forbidden in some settings there, such as workplaces and schools. If you plan to show expression labels, check the rules where the event is, and tell the audience.

Does anything leave the machine?

The video goes only where you send it: the NDI, Syphon and Spout feeds you switch on. Apart from that:

• Activating a shop licence sends the key, a code made from this machine's hardware (not its serial number) and the machine's name to letissier.ie, and the check-ins afterwards send the key and that code.
• Crash reports and feedback go only if you say so. See Does Yewee send crash reports?

Nothing else: no analytics, no update checks, no pictures.

Should I tell the audience?

It's good practice to say, on a sign or in the pre-show announcement, that the screens will show the audience with graphics following faces, and that no one is identified or recorded by it. Recording the show itself (in your mixer or recorder) is separate from Yewee and follows your usual rules.

Licensing and the trial

How does the trial work?

A new install runs every feature for 72 hours, counted in real time from the first launch, including time when Yewee isn't running. The Licence card in the panel shows the time left. When the trial ends the feeds carry a TRIAL ENDED slate until you enter a key. Reinstalling doesn't start a new trial, and neither does setting the computer's clock back.

How many machines can one licence run on?

2. Each machine takes a seat when you activate. To move a licence, press Remove licence on the old machine (which frees the seat), or release the seat from letissier.ie/account, then activate on the new one.

Can Yewee run with no internet?

Yes. Once it is activated, Yewee needs no internet at all to run: the licence is kept on the machine.

• Activating a shop key needs a connection for a few seconds. With none, use offline activation with a request code, from any other device.
• Check-ins. Yewee checks in with letissier.ie a minute after launch and then daily, in the background. When it can't, nothing happens. After 30 days without one, the Licence card asks you to connect once when you can; nothing is restricted.
• Older YW1. keys never need the internet.
• During a show, nothing to do with the licence can stop the feeds. A licence that has ended (after a refund, or a seat released from your account) takes effect at the next launch, never mid-show.

The trial also runs offline.

Which keys does Yewee take?

LT-YEWE-… keys from the shop, the long licence that offline activation gives you, and older YW1.… keys. A key for another LeTissier product is refused by name, and typing slips are corrected or caught before anything is sent. See Installing.

Do I get updates?

A licence covers every 1.x release. Download the new version from the Yewee page and install over the old one; settings and licence stay.

Can I get a refund?

Yes, within 30 days of buying, no reason needed. See the refund policy.

Using Yewee

What does it need to run?

A Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 11 or later, or a 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC. Any recent machine tracks a 720p camera with room to spare. An NVIDIA GPU on Windows helps with large, wide crowds; see Tune for small faces.

How many faces can it track?

There's no fixed limit: all the faces the detector finds in each frame. The cost of tracking hardly grows with the crowd; finding faces costs the same however many there are; expression labels are rationed per frame (Expression effort). In practice, the limit is how small a face the camera and Search detail can resolve.

Does it add delay?

About one frame for the processing: the Total in the Performance card is how long each frame takes. NDI adds its own small delay on the way to the mixer, as it does for any source. Yewee always takes the latest frame from the source rather than queueing, so delay doesn't build up.

Can it run without a screen?

Yes. Turn off Window on the machine and run it from a phone; if the machine has no screen at all, Yewee turns the window off by itself. Start it with --no-browser if nobody will see the machine's browser.

Does it keep the machine awake?

Yes. While Yewee runs, the machine and its display don't go to sleep.

Does Yewee send crash reports?

Only if you agree. Send crash reports automatically is off until you turn it on. After Yewee closes unexpectedly, the panel asks once whether to send a report about it, and shows you exactly what would be sent first. A report holds the error, the version, the operating system and a random install id. Before it is stored, your user name, folder paths, licence keys, e-mail and IP addresses, the PIN, the machine's name and the names of your sources and feeds are removed. It never includes pictures or settings. See Help and feedback.

Where do I report a problem or ask for a feature?

Send feedback… in the panel's Help and feedback card sends it straight to the studio, with an e-mail address if you want a reply. It waits on the machine if it's offline.