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iPhone accelerometer hacks

Computers & Mobile Craft & Design Technology


On the Medallia blog, Erling Ellingsen has been monkeying around with the accelerometer on the iPhone, some applications of which he demos in the above video. He writes:

As it turns out, the iPhone has a built-in LIS302DL, a tiny 3-axis accelerometer. While some have attempted to use it from within the Safari browser (the Tilt game detects changes to the width of the browser page; it is basically used as a 1-bit input device), its potential is still somewhat untapped. After a rather lengthy bout of reverse-engineering (I had barely touched ARM assembly before this), I finally figured out how to access the raw data from the accelerometer itself, as can be seen in the video above. Source code is posted here. (update: yes, it is possible to access the accelerometer directly through UIKit without this hack — however, you’ll be locked to the default sample rate, which is too slow for some of the fun stuff)

Fun with the iPhone accelerometer – [via] Link

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

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