28 November 2007
ShakerRacer - Real RC car
controlled with the N95 acceleration sensor
 I've just found something truly amazing over at out forum section; something that takes the acceleration sensor of a mobile phone to the next level and use it to control something more realistic and literally “bigger” than an application that is running on the phone itself.
Since the API to read the data of the acceleration sensor of the Nokia N95 has been released a short time ago, a lot of applications using it have been released.
Some examples are the original moving ball-application from Nokia, the light sabre or Accelerinvaders.
It’s finally possible to reach a bigger target audience than a few months ago when we released CarMeter and gBoarder, which were unfortunately only supported by the Nokia 5500.
When you're playing a racing game or using an RC car, you will very often move your whole body when driving through tight turns or accelerate with full speed — but the control itself is very often still done through abstract buttons on a game controller or keyboard.
ShakerRacer does not need this additional layer and allows you to control an RC car directly through your movements — by using the acceleration sensor of your mobile phone. It works in a very intuitive way: just tilt your phone in the direction you want to drive. That's it!
The car that they used is based on a standard €90 RC car bought from a toy shop. They modded it to accept Bluetooth instead of the proprietary wireless module that it was shipped with. A small microcontroller and a Bluetooth module replace the original wireless components. On the side of the mobile phone, a Python script translates the input of the acceleration sensor to commands that the microcontroller can understand in order to manage the steering servo as well as the main motor.
It turned out that this is a very intuitive and natural way to control the car. You do not need any practice as the concept can be understood instantly. So there's nothing that can block your way to fun!
That’s it, all I need now is this modded remotely controlled truck or at least necessary schematic to build one.
Find more information at symbianresources.com
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