By Evan Ackerman
This prototype MP3 player was designed and fabricated by a Japanese engineer. It’s controlled entirely through an accelerometer, which measures things like movement and impacts. If you want to skip a track, for example, just give the MP3 player a tap on one edge, or tilt it over to alter the volume.
“The MP3 player does not have any buttons nor dials that shown in right photo and it has an acceleration sensor instead of the mechanical switches. Therefore all playback commands to the player are given in defined motions, such as inclination, tilt and shock. The player detects the motion with the built-in acceleration sensor and recognize it as a playback control command.”
There are all kinds of devices with accelerometers now, including most higher-end cellphones. Often, the user interfaces are cluttered with options and menus and buttons, and it would be a cinch (wouldn’t it?) to enable some sort of accelerometer control. It doesn’t have to be comprehensive or complex; for example, just being able to tap the case of my iPhone and have it pause and play while it was in a coat pocket would be incredibly handy.
::cough:: Hint hint…
VIA [ Hacked Gadgets ]