Using Accelerometer output to control Computer-Side Applications

[ichaelmay8]

Youtube video:

Here's the official writeup:

iPod Touch/iPhone Game Controller

>Overview

This hack allows you to obtain accelerometer input from your iPod Touch or iPhone and send it to a local machine. From there, the data can be used to power a game(as I chose) or to show the iPod's orientation graphically. The code itself is mainly PHP and JavaScript, with some HTML.

>How Does this Work?

In the iPod's browser(safari), Apple included some javascript events. One such event is window.orientation. This returns either 0, 90, or -90. The home button is at the bottom, to the left, and to the right, respectively.

This value is written to a cookie, which is then read by the PHP code. The PHP code then writes this value to a text file, which is then read by various applications.

Frankly, it's a couple of dirty hacks. The php file refreshes once a second to reread the cookie.

>Which Files do What?

ipodtocompy.php contains the PHP code and HTML stuff. It handles reading the cookie set by ipodtocompy.js. It also prints this value to a server-side file. ipodtocompy.js gets the input from the iPod and writes the cookie.

>How Effective is it?

It works pretty well. There's some noticeable lag though. There's about a second, maybe 1.5 seconds of delay between rotating the touch and having one of the computer-based applications perform an action.

What did you have to do to get this to work?

I had to set up a Local Area Network with a wi-fi connection. I installed apache 2.2.3 and PHP 5.2.5 on my computer which is connected to this LAN.

>How can I try this?

You can grab the code from here##. You have to set up a LAN and install apache and PHP. Links and stuff on that are in the code archive.

>What's in that archive?

It's a zip file(for universality's sake). It contains readme.txt, ipodtocompy.js, ipodtocompy.php, tiles.exe, and rawread.exe. Tiles and rawread are two utilities I wrote to test the output of the PHP script. Tiles is the game depicted in the video #here#. Rawread directly reads in the values from the PHP script.

>What if I want more information?

Then drop me an email at ichaelmay8@yahoo.com. I'll be glad to answer any questions you've got.

>How long did this take?

It took a couple hours in the evening, and most of the following day to write. I think that's pretty good for a seventeen year old whose primary language is C.

>>iPod Touch, iPod, iPhone, and Apple are trademarks of Apple, Inc.

Here's the link to the code and instructions: http://www.freewebs.com/ichaelmay8/ipodtocompy.zip

[ichaelmay8]

Sorry about the double post. Feel free to merge the posts if needed.

I was able to get the iPod Touch to control your mouse location/clicks. Here's the youtube video:

[H3X]

Wow, that's awesome.

I might try it soon.

[RedBooster]

Yea, thats really awesome... I managed to get my ipot to control a few applications, and i'm still trying to control my mouse clicks.. i'll get it eventually.

[I XtiNCt I]

that is freaking cool. i am gonna try that on my mac later. i think it would probably work, right? same theory basically...

This is amazing.

I can't wait to try this on my iPod Touch.

[ichaelmay8]

Here's the stuff for the desktop control: http://www.freewebs.com/ichaelmay8/i...control1.0.zip

The binaries inside are windows only(sorry, but I included the source for everything). Just like the accelerometer hack, you need to have apache installed.

[DarkWarrior]

this is like the Wiimote hacks :p