Oberthur Technologies has come up with yet another interesting application of accelerometer technology. Their new SIMSense card is the first motion-sensing SIM card on the planet.
One? Two-hoo? Threeee? Three. Sigh. [Product Page via Shiny Shiny]
The drinkin’ tinkerers over at Instructables created the Serv O’Beer to interpret a “pouring” motion with an iPhone into a real, albeit foamy, beer. What an age we live in!
One of the projects that caught our eye at NYU’s ITP winter show last night (the program that brought you Big Screens) were the Head(banger)phones, accelerometer-equipped to change the music as you bob your head.
Even if you have the still hands of Solid Snake on Diazepam, night shots with a mobile phone camera will often turn out a blur. Night Camera detects motion and pulls the trigger when your shakies are at their steadiest.
Movea’s Gyration Motionsense Air Mouse adds to the ranks of new mice with gyros and accelerometers inside so you can control your computer just by waving them mid-air. It’s an ambidextrous mouse using 2.4GHz wireless tech with 100-foot range and it’s got both customizable buttons and gesture recognition. Inside there are two rotational gyro axes and three linear accelerometer axes to detect your movements with greater precision, and it’s got a mere 20ms start-up time. As if that’s not enough, it’s also got a standard laser mouse option in case your arm gets tired. Available early October for $US100. Press release below. galleryPost('gyrationairmouse', 3, '');
The speakingObject is a voice-synthesising board that’s easily tweaked with two buttons and a typical three-axis accelerometer. What’s that mean? You get a completely original, vaguely human techno-ready track with the flick of a wrist. And yes, it’s only a matter of time before some tripped-out a’hole at a concert is doing this right next to you while waving his iLighter high in the air. [joerg via bbGadgets]
Researchers at the University of Virginia hope to combat injuries suffered from elderly falls with these teched-out pants, which employ multiple sensors sewn into your standard flannel jams (aka blogging pants) to monitor the gait of the wearer for potential problems in real time. So long as he doesn’t shuffle out of Bluetooth range.
I was really excited to see A-Level hit the App Store today–I’ve actually needed to use a level recently, but I don’t have one. And replacing a physical tool with a 99-cent mobile software app is what the future’s all about, right? But after grabbing it and giving it a test, it’s a well-executed app but with one fatal flaw: you can’t re-zero your accelerometers.
Some information has leaked out about Samsung’s upcoming M3510 music-player mobile phone, and it looks like it’ll have some accelerometer-driven control built-in. A bit like the ShakeSMS app for Nokia phones and the Sansa Shake MP3 player, the M3510 will let you shake it in different directions and turn it around to control the music player and other apps. Other than that it’s a 1cm deep candybar, with 2-inch screen, 2-megapixel camera and FM radio, and it’ll cost somewhere between US$310 and US$390 when it’s released. [Unwiredview]
