accelerometer on technabob...

Minor modifications aside, today’s Rubik’s Cube is very similar to the one that Ernő Rubik introduced to the world more than 30 years ago. But it was only a matter of time before the geeky puzzle cube got touched by technology. That sounded dirty. But you get it, right? Touchscreen Rubik’s Cube. Stupid pun. So…

Ever try to install a satellite dish? Speaking from personal experience, I can say that finding the right line-of-sight from the dish to the skies can be a real pain in the a$$. Now there’s a new app coming for the iPhone 3GS that could make satellite dish positioning just a bit easier.

DishPointer’s next-generation…

A couple of young Czech whippersnappers have figured out how to use the iPhone’s accelerometer to control remote controlled cars.

They say, “Controlling is very easy with the iPhone 3G. It has five buttons, four of them you can use for traditional driving and when you press the last one, it unlocks the accelerometer control…

Do you remember the oh-so-low-low-tech game Snake? Now it can be played on a monome with an accelerometer. You don’t even need a controller, since the tilting motion is all you need to control the snake’s movements.

Check out the video here, which demonstrates how intuitive the game becomes when all you have to do…

The Jupiter Mouse is a sphere of wood fashioned into a mouse that you hold in the palm of your hand to control. You move the cursor by adjusting the tilt of the mouse.

The mouse is made out of “Chinese flowering ash from Japan’s rural Gunma prefecture.” Wow, that’s specific! It comes with a…

This nifty proof-of-concept demo shows off just one of the many gameplay possibilities for multi-player video games on Apple’s wonderphone.

iPong is a variant of Atari’s classic paddle ball game, with a multi-device, multi-player twist. Using some clever trickery, players can actually bounce their ball off of their iPhone’s screen onto the display of another…

I came across this nifty concept for an electronic plaything earlier this week and thought I’d share it with you guys.

Steve Gilbertson’s interactive color cube uses a 3-axis accelerometer to detect movements and relays that information to a grid of brightly colored LEDs to create a portable light show in a box.

Each axis…

This modern twist on the classic pedometer doesn’t just track your steps, it lets you keep tabs on the quality of the exercise you get during your day-to-day life.

Unlike meters that just count your steps, the Seiko SlimStick uses modern dual-axis accelerometers to track the magnitude of your movements, giving greater value to more…

Sure, there are lots of devices which are starting to embed motion sensors or touch screens to power new user interface paradigms. But this is the first time I’ve seen a motion-sensitive device which is designed to be operated entirely with one hand.

KEYnetik’s motion interface system uses multiple accelerometers to detect not just the…

Interactive artist Andrew Fentem created this cool electronic cube puzzle game loaded with colorful LEDs. The Fentix Cube is controlled by touch as well as through movement.

While it’s designed as a platform, capable of playing a number of different games and puzzles, the interactive plaything happens to do a great job digitally emulating the…

A hacker claims to have written custom software which directly accesses the accelerometer on Apple’s iPhone. He’s put together a brief video clip which shows off some really fun use of the motion-sensing capabilities.

While I’m a bit skeptical that the video clip could be a fake, developer Erling Ellingsen does have a track record…

I was rummaging around the USPTO Patent database earlier today, and came across this intriguing patent application from Nintendo.

The filing, originally dated March 30, 2007 (but just updated this week) describes a portable gaming system that includes X/Y/Z motion sensing that’s similar to that found in the Wii-Mote. The application abstract describes the system…