25 April 2008

Demo of the RC truck
controlled with the N95 at the Web 2.0 Expo

Saara from the S60 Blogs claims that one of the greatest eye-catchers of the S60 stand at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco definitely has been the S60 RC truck.

This little vehicle is controlled with a Python-based application, the Shaker Racer, on a Nokia N95. As you may have already know; ShakerRacer is the concept similar to NokMote, Acceleracer, and especially NiiMe that allows you to control a real RC car with the accelerometer of the Nokia N95.

This means that you can turn and accelerate car simply by tilting your phone. 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! 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 or some kind of remote controller.

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!