The SMS Text News site has a piece up today about developers taking the motion sensing ball and running with it on the Nokia N95/ Symbian platform. Featured in the piece is an app called ShakeSMS which leverages the built-in accelerometer to unlock the phone and open/close SMS messages. Other apps discussed include one to rotate the display (ala iPhone), turn off the ringer and navigate through the phone’s menus.

You can read the entire article here.

The video referenced in the article is here:

SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–InvenSense, the leading provider of award-winning motion-sensing solutions for portable consumer electronics, today announced the introduction of the IDG-1100 family of dual-axis gyroscopes, the world’s smallest solution at 4 x 5 x 1.2 mm. InvenSense’s dual-axis gyroscopes, which integrate both the micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) resonating structures and compensating complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics at the silicon wafer level, is 25% smaller than any competing dual-axis gyro solution on the market today.The IDG-1100 product family targets cost-sensitive and size-constrained portable consumer applications such as digital still cameras (DSC) and camcorders for image and video stabilization, portable navigation devices (PND) for dead reckoning when GPS signals are lost or corrupted, and 3D motion sensing devices such as air mice and audio/video remote controls for television and multimedia centers and game controllers.

Continue Reading �

Johnny Chung Lee is a grad student at Carnegie Mellon’s Human-Computer Interaction Institute and (as far as we can tell from his videos) a hacker in the best sense of the word. This video (found via the “Fake Steve Jobs” blog, of all places) shows a Wii hack that Lee has created to use the Wiimote and sensor bar to create a virtual reality monitor.

It’s easier to just watch, rather than have us explain, so here it is:

Almost lost in the merger talks at CES a couple of weeks ago — but not quite — is the news that Movea Inc. (the new company formed by the acquisition of Gyration by Movea SA) is adding ST Microelectronic’s MEMS accelerometer technology to the combined company’s UltraSense motion sensing technology platform.

We’ll be exploring where and how Gyration’s traditional gyroscopic technology and the accelerometer-based technology will work together in Movea’s forthcoming products soon.

Remember the old days when you read an ad on the Internet, listened as it was broadcast on the car radio, or watched it play on TV? That’s history. It was too easy to flip the page or change the channel.

A Redwood City, Calif. firm called Reactrix has a product called WAVEscape that lets consumers actually interact with advertising. It is popping up at public venues – mainly shopping malls – all over the country.

The technology is also being rolled out by elite Hilton Hotels to allow guests to interact with guest services and meeting services. It uses a stereo near-infrared solution with a 16-foot range, although the interactive sweet spot is in the four-to-eight foot area.

“This creates a new paradigm for social interaction with advertising,” says Mike Ribero, CEO. WAVEscape enables gesture-based group experiences that the company promises will lead to more effective brand messaging and higher unaided recall than conventional out-of-home advertising.

Continue Reading �

The Detroit News has an interesting article up about the use of Wii gaming as a rehab tool.  Doctors and therapists at the Providence Hospital Center for Rehabilitation and Fitness are incorporating Wii gaming sessions in their patient’s rehab routines. While gaming isn’t replacing traditional therapy, it is being found to be an excellent adjunct that adds some fun to the grind:

“A lot of patients don’t really want to exercise, but if it involves doing an activity they enjoy, they’d be more apt to do it,” said Jackie Grabinski, a Providence physical therapist. “If you’re moving and standing and doing something, it’s going to work on your muscle strength. “

We’ll be covering this topic more in some upcoming articles, including uses of motion controlled gaming and interactive programming for stroke rehab and for developmental therapy for autistic children.

Blog 8Bit Joystick.com has an interview up with a confidential MS insider. The majority of the discussion revolves around some of the hardware issues that the Xbox 360 has faced during its time on market (30% return rates on failed hardware are claimed!). But the most interesting part, to us at least, comes at the very end, where the insider states that he or she tried to get MS interested in motion control and sensing for the then forthcoming platform, to no avail.

As the rumors and speculation mount that Microsoft will eventually join Nintendo and Sony on the motion sensing bandwagon, this article may be showing what could have been.

The San Francisco Chronicle has a profile piece up today covering the three optical sensing companies who made a splash at CES: GestureTek, 3DV Systems and Reactrix Systems.

The article is here, and a related piece (with video) is here.

ST Microelectronics has just brought out its LIS334AL, targeted at MEMS users requiring both a small physical footprint and low power consumption. “The ultra-compact market continues to grow,” notes ST’s Carol Brown, technical consultant. “Price and cost-effectiveness are what is driving the market.”

The LIS334AL extends the ST family of ultra-compact ‘low-g’ linear accelerometers with a three-axis analog-output sensor. Brown says it is ideally suited for battery-powered and space-constrained portable devices, such as mobile phones, portable media players, PDAs or remote controls.

“It has an ultra-compact square footprint operating with low power consumption,” says Brown.

The single-package approach protects a robust three-axis MEMS sensor and a CMOS interface chip that provides tilting and motion information, independent of the device’s orientation, thanks to the three-axis sensing capabilities.

The LIS344AL estimates acceleration values at a very low noise level with minimized power consumption, which is especially critical in battery-operated portable systems. The new accelerometer is housed in an inexpensive 4 x 4 x 1.5mm plastic package to fit in a variety of space-constrained applications and its ultra-compact, robust design provides shock survivability up to 10,000g.

Continue Reading �

New Scientist has an interesting piece up about an effort at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center in Phoenix to use videogaming as a “warm up” for surgery. Doctors Kanav Kahol and Marshall Smith had a group of surgical residents perform tasks on their virtual surgery training tool — with and without a Wii gaming session prior to the simulated surgery.  They found a 48% improvement in accuracy for those residents who had played Wii games, compared to those residents who came into the virtual surgery “cold”.

It’s suggested that a system based on inexpensive off-the-shelf hardware like Wii could provide a very low barrier to entry for training surgeons in developing nations.

Read the article here, more coverage here.