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PowerBook As A New Kind Of Human Interface Device
An anonymous reader writes "As covered earlier on Slashdot, Amit Singh had shown how to access and use the motion sensor feature in the late model PowerBooks for innovative things, which created quite a buzz in the Mac community. In an ingenius new article, Singh has taken the idea all the way and released software which lets you use a PowerBook with a motion sensor as a general purpose input device which works with existing apps. IMHO the coolest use of this is for playing games: be sure to check out the video footage in the article. For instance, in a car racing game, you steer by tilting the PowerBook left and right, go faster by tilting it forward, brake by tilting it backwards! You can also scroll in apps. Google Map scrolling with my PowerBook feels like flying in an aiprlane over the terrain. I must say you have to try this in real life to appreciate the experience ... go to the Apple store or something if you don't have the hardware ;-) Before this my girlfriend (who uses a Dell notebook) has never called anything computer related "jawdropping"! Wouldn't it be nice to have a gaming motion sensor be standard issue in all future laptops?"
All I can say is...yawn.
The submitter acts like they have never seen anything you can tilt before. The fact is its purely a novelty. Is this more useful than, say, a joystick? I really don't think so. Consider tilting your laptop all over the place on an airplane. I''m sure it would annoy your neighbors to no end.
Something that would really be good... Controlling stuff by holding your hand out over the keyboard and tilting/sweeping your hand. Now that would be quite an idea.
-d
"Here Lies Philip J. Fry, named for his uncle, to carry on his spirit"
If you turn it upside down and shake it, does that clear the screen now?