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Knock Some Commands Into Your Laptop
An anonymous reader writes "For the first time, you can smack your computer and get a meaningful response! An article at IBM Devworks show you how to rap on the laptop case with your knuckles and have commands run on those knocks. Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless."
...using Ralph Kramden's wife.
A MacOSX program called VirtuaDesktops has integrated this sort of thing, but it's still a bit finicky. You knock the laptop and it switches to the next desktop in the direction you knocked. It needs some debouncing because the recoil often just switches you right back to where you were.
[
IBM's warranty calls for failed drives shot through the roof.
I don't know about you, but I would not go out of my way to subject a laptop to sudden motion intentionally while the hard drive is running, no matter how well the hard drives are built. If I spend $2,000 on a laptop, I'd want the thing to last.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
This has been around for months on the MacBook Pro in the form of Smackbook. The user simply hits his MBP to switch desktops. In this case, one of the desktops is running OS X, the other XP via Parallels.
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016
Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless
... that would be useful.
I'm waiting for them to enable the self destruct sequence on Dell laptops
...my laptop to detect opportunity when it knocks?
How 'bout compiler engines? Will it detect knocking in them?
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
...usually when I hit my laptop, it's because it's already frozen.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Does it run on windows?. Smackpad for linux came out days after smackbook but I dont know if anyone was working on porting it
Maybe we should just start putting in different types of random sensors in laptops that can pull data from the emediate environment and see what the hackers can do with them. Some suggestions:
Gyroscopes for Orientation (pitch,roll,yaw)
More accelerometers
Altimeter
GPS
External temperature,humidity, pressure
Pressure sensors (which determine how hard the user is banging on the keyboard in aggrevation).
Thermal imaging
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
... What seems to be the problem?
"Uh, well, I was drunk and I, uh... My screen is cracked."
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
One knock for yes, two knocks for no, and three knocks for cancel
knock knock knock smack smack smack knock knock knock
It looks like you're calling for help.
Would you like help?
* Telegraph CQD RAPE RAPE STOP NEED HELP PDQ STOP
* Just signal your distress without help
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
What they need to do to install the sensors int the monitors of desktops because that's were the average user will hit they computer.
My guess is that most people get fixated on the monitor or don't realize that if they wanted to do damage then need to strike the components that actually do the work.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Aside from the fact that encouraging people to gradually ruin their notebook's hard drive, this idea is the next "MOUSE GESTURING".
Write press release - introduce a few whiz-bang apps or games - stumble over an article about the concept ten years later and laugh at the idea all over again.
At least it's not the next Z-Board.
1. chair impact detected
2. sell microsoft stock
3. buy google stock
4. profit!
"Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless."
Detecting underseas earthquakes?
Lots of fun at the coffee shop.
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
... that everyone's new password will be "shave and a haircut"
So, will this allow a true port knocking protocol to be implemented?
"Why isn't the USB port working?"
"Knock first!"
"Help, help, come see the vviolence in the system... help, help, I'm being repressed!!!"
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Typing ls was too much for people?
G.R.O.S.S.
see http://www.geocities.com/lsyuen.geo/gross.html
I think the knock sensor would be cool for security, have a secret knock, just like in the pillow forts and tree house clubs of yore.
also...for the kid in you...
http://www.knock-knock-joke.com/
A couple of knockers on a computer. What else is new?
Bert
Who learned his slang from a James Bond movie (the one with Famke Jansen)
A secret knock pattern to login to your machine perhaps?
50% Offtopic - Calvin and Hobbes have jackshit to do with this topic.
Customer Service.
Customer Service who?
This is even cooler - using Virtual Desktops, Shadowbook, and Parallels Desktop, you can switch between OS X and Windows just by waving your hand over the ambient light sensor in the MacBook Pro ...
Peep a video here:
http://blog.medallia.com/2006/06/shadowbook.html
Cheers!
I would hate to get owned by someone who didn't even have their laptop open.
It would be a great way to input Morse Code into a laptop. It could be integrated into a program which teaches Morse Code and would be fun to learn.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
Anyone know if this is possible (or if there is any group) working on this for WindowsXP-based Thinkpads?
...of that grrrl from Unreal Tournament saying, Hit me harder
At least I thought she said that...
Today's post was broght to you by the kaptcha "deprive"
How hard do you have to hit it before it starts singing A Bicycle Built for Two?
This has been around for many years.......
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I can take a framing hammer to my laptop, and it'll install Ubuntu in response?
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
Future of laptop communications between laptop and its owner...
Laptop owner (trying knock commands): knock knock
Laptop: who's there?
Laptop owner: me
Laptop: me who?
Laptop owner (frustrated, tries again): knock knock
Laptop: who's there?
Laptop owner: your owner
Laptop: your owner who?
Laptop owner: want your owner to knock you on the ground again?
Laptop: okay, okay, no need to become violent!
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein
What was the original intention of this accelerometer sensor gizmo?
Please write a module that shouts out expletives when smacked. Maybe hack offensive fortune package for this. I promise to donate some to buy y'all (well, some of yous) a round of beer for this.
Please. Thank you.
Control freak of Slashdot!
Now YOU post control freak of Slashdot who!!!
Any laptop with a microphone will pick up someone rapping on the case.
Seems to me the best use of this technology is to do something that nobody has ever been able to do with a computer before: make a realistic pinball game, one where you can actually nudge the machine to control the ball (and risk getting a tilt).
I've been able to slap some sense into my windows for quite some time now. It comes built-in to X11.
First off, choose a cursor theme in which the cursor for moving a window is a hand, such as any of the comix cursor themes in Debian. Next, on those rare occasions when a program misbehaves, hold down the Alt key to warn the window. Finally, click and drag the mouse anywhere on the offending window briefly, while the Alt key is still held down.
Congratulations, you've just slapped some sense into the misbehaving window.
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
You've always been able to reboot ANY os by giving it a swift kick. Isn't that why they call it "booting"?
...is is any wonder why no-one uses desktops anymore?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
What is that program with the blue liquidy stuff that seems to move whenever he moves the window. Looks like oodles of fun.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious man page of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, to page down I started tapping,
On the case of laptop rapping, rapping to see one page more.
`'Tis a kernel module,' said I, `understanding taps galore -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
A completely obvious application:
Whack the monitor with your right hand to produce a carriage return and a ding.
Would that not be totally retro-cool?
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
look at "x-gestures" for osx. it allows any mouse gesture to be applied to any key sequence, app opening/reactivation, apple script, expose, etc. it simply rocks and I WOULDN'T use a desktop computer (read: large screen) without it! having to go all the way to a menu at the top of the screen for every little thing is so 2004.. and when you have things like a straight left/right/up/down gesture tied to a virtual desktop program, it really starts to sizzle. the whole acceloremter anything is not as slick as xgestures, period, but then again, it looks like the last time you searched around was netscape navigator years ago you'd be wise to go give that a shot. dark ages without it.
CS majors know the time/space tradeoff, but they never get taught the 3rd, crucial, tradeoff of the set: comprehension!
The sudden motion the sensors were originally designed to sense was the first stage of it starting to fall off of a desk or table, onto the floor. If it took very much shock energy to trip the sensor, it would be totally useless - since it would basically be asking the hard drive to shut down after the computer already hit the floor.
Therefore, the sensors are very sensitive - registering a response to levels of shock well below what would actually harm a spinning laptop hard drive. (If your drive was fragile enough to crash because of someone lightly tapping on the top of the notebook's case, or giving a light tap to the side of the unit to switch virtual screens, it would also die whenever someone tried to move around to get moer comfortable with their laptop in their lap, or adjiust the position of the lid, or.... (you get the idea).
This stuff seems perfectly harmless to me, as long as users exercise some common sense. (Obviously - it was NEVER a good idea to whack your computer hard on the side or top!)
Now what I want to see is software that monitors the knocking and phones home to us if one of our users is smacking the crap out of one of our laptops, so we can spring in on them and catch them in the act. That would rock.
And finally the jackhammer is added to the list of banned hacking devices...
Two knocks! Double yes!
It's not exactly rocket surgery.
See, they smacked the Mellium Falcon for a reason.
Table-ized A.I.
This is not the OS you are looking for... [handwave]
I'm really trying to think of how this would be useful in any way. Sure it's a pretty cool gimmick to be slapping your laptop around, especially for all the folks out there with sadistic tendencies, but can it really accomplish anything that couldn't be accomplished with an ordinary laptop? Which would be easier, switching desktops by hitting Ctrl+F2 or reaching up and tapping the side of your laptop screen? It takes longer and is a waste of energy. (I mean, isn't that the reason people are so crazy about Vim and Emacs? The fact that you don't have to lift your hands from the keyboard?)
I will admit that being able to lock and unlock your computer through a series of taps is pretty nifty, but the same feature could be accomplished through timed keystrokes and so forth. And people have already mentioned possible affects on the hardware.
It seems to me that this will be more of a niche product, sort of like the thumbprint scanners seem to be nowadays.
Need a quick escape? Simply tap SOS in morse code on your laptop and a moment later you receive an "urgent call that I've gotta take" on your cell phone.
Brilliant!
Microsoft needs to stick support for this in Vista's pinball game. Shaking the table with it would be awesome. ;-)
Hey, you could just use your laptop as a controller - though it's perhaps not quite as comfortable as this.
Attack its weak point for massive damage!
What? All these jokes about knocking on laptops and nothing about bash errors?
bash: shave-and-a-haircut: command not found
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
The biggest earthquake measured has much less than 1g of acceleration so laptop sensors might not have the best resolution for this application, but I still wonder at the possibilities for mapping the effects of a quake at many places due to distributed sensing logged in people's accelerometer enabled computers.
Start Running Better Polls
... I still can't install Linux and just have my accelerated, common ATI graphics card and Broadcom wireless working out of the box. Am I the only one that can see the problem here? You can knock commands into your laptop! They've made custom kernel drivers! But you still can't have your accelerated graphics drivers working out of the box on any distro.
Won't this let out the magic smoke? No way I am doing that again!
don't forget the MacSaber, clearly the best use of a laptop to date.
Puts a whole new spin on the "secret password" term. Why bother typing in a password when you can tap out a rhythm?
because a shadow passing across the sensor would NEVER happen unintentionally. >.>
A guilty conscience means at least you've got one.
A Mac OS X called iAlertU takes advantage of the motion-sensing abilities of the MacBook Pro laptops and is absolutely cool and useful. It is an alarm activated by any attempt to pick up the laptop or interaction with the keyboard, trackpad, mouse, or power adapter. Also activates the laptop's built-in camera in an attempt to snapshot the prevaricator. Grand.
ZP
We only can learn from our mistakes.
via voip over wifi if the laptop gets run over? Can save some time.....
Do not downmod posts "overrated" simply because you disagree with them.
For a more gentle way to motivate your laptop, get one with an ambient lighrt sensor in it, like the MBP... then you can simply wave a finger over the sensor using morse code like commands instead of smacking it....
Here's an example where the guy turns on and off a 'shelf' terminal app...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slZDN7zeMWI&c
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
#!/bin/sh
mplayer ~/samples/ouch..._that_HURT.wav
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
I really am surprised by the lack of references to Cryptonomicon. This would have been perfect when Randy was imprisoned and he ended up hacking some code to detect morse code from his spacebar and flashing it back via either his caps or num lock keys (can't recall which) so he could communicate without his captors knowledge.
"Etch-a-skecth"-like clear function? :-)
P.S.: by the way, I wouldn't suggest associating any particularly destructive command (clear, delete, format, etc) to the "knock" shortcut.
This message doesn't need a sig
Indeed. It is embarassing. For instance in his sentence, "bad" modifies the verb, "mangled." If you put "badly" in there, then you'd be saying that the mangling was done badly—not very well mangled at all—rather than that the mangled word itself was particulary bad. It changes the meaning from a poorly constructed sentence of questionable grammar which gets the point across into a sentence of inarguably correct grammar but unambiguously incorrect meaning.
Just because his sentence doesn't look quite right doesn't mean that your correction was not actually worse.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Fifteen years ago a computer ignorant friend saw that our workstation's screen was black and he called out, worried that the hardware had broken. I said "Aw, that darned thing!" and kicked the table. The screen popped back to life. Of course, the screen blanker had turned on, and kicking the table bounced the mouse and turned it off. But he didn't know that. He was terribly impressed that I could repair computer equipment just by kicking and cursing.
For the first time you can get a meaningful response?!
I have a box - that actually is quite new - it needs a smack every now and then to boot up. That's a meaningful response.
I'd be cool for games, the obvious pinball: (paf) Warning! (paf) Warning! (paf)(paf) TILT.
Or boxing kind of games where you can really slap your opponent.
Not to mention.... DDR!!!! Left Top Right Right PERFECT!!
One word.... TILT
If this is real,
then one could probably use Morse code on their laptop, in a sort of laptop meets the telegraph. I mean, why not?
Now we just wait for software which will unfreeze a machine when you hit it severly with a large hammer..
I must be getting old since there was not one single joke about The Fonz.
Perhaps he used this technology to control jukeboxes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fonz
"A government is a body of people, usually notably ungoverned." - Shepard Book Quoting Malcolm Reynolds
Many people are unhappy with this advance as this is the first technology to ever run any type of wire into people's homes.
or else!
Shave and a haircut 2 bits
Ever since I picked up my shiny new T41 a couple years ago I thought it would be the "coolest" use ever to hook the tilt/feedback sensor up to a software pinball game. If you push it just right the ball might move slightly out of the drain zone... Too much and .. _TILT_ you'll either break your notebook or have to insert another quarter into the SD slot :)