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Motion-Sensing Laptops on the Way

by Tom Conlon on May 1, 2007 at 10:23 AM

Motion-Sensing Laptops on the Way
Researchers out of British Telecom's Ipswitch labs have grabbed the motion-sensing technology from Nintendo's Wiimote and built an adapter for tablet PCs, which the company says in a press release, "removes the need for a keyboard and mouse."

Dubbed the BT Balance System, the adapter contains what's known as an accelerometer – a motion-sensing chip used elsewhere to deploy airbags and to detect if Apple laptops are being dropped. The accelerometer measures motion, tilt and rotation, then uses software to translate movement into on-screen actions, such as moving the cursor, opening folders and flipping pages of a virtual book. In fact, books were the system's inspiration.

"We wanted to create an interface that was simple and intuitive," says British Telecom's Adam Oliver in the company press release. "Standard ways of controlling PC applications can be too complicated, so we decided to use the analogy of a book to work with. What we ended up with gives you the same look and feel of picking up a book and reading it but in a 3-D digital format."

Oliver goes onto say that the technology will hopefully one day help the elderly, who sometimes struggle with the keyboard and mouse. Just like her awesome telephone with the giant numbers, this once again proves that Grandma gets all the coolest toys.

Related Links:

From BBC

Tags: apple, computer, damage, laptop, motion, nintendo, wii

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