Guy creates Angry Birds slingshot controller
What do you get if you take a slingshot, add an acceleometer, and write code to translate slingshot movements into mouse movements? A Slingshot controller for Angry Birds. The DIY project above was created by Simon Ford using various electronic components and some custom code. It basically consists of a stretch sensor, an accelerometer, some parts to get them to speak to a computer, and of course a slingshot. The result speaks for itself in the video above.
This was done using a computer, not a tablet, but I can’t help but wonder if this would be a nice commercial product. It certainly would be interesting if Rovio (who makes Angry Birds) released something like this as an actual product, Bluetooth-enabled and with support for the devices that the game originated on – tablets and smartphones. Angry Birds is as strong a brand as ever, and I don’t know if it amuses me or frightens me that something like this would sell.
Either way, this DIY project is awesome just for being a DIY project. Perhaps someone could expand on it further to make it compatible with at least Android, something that is far from impossible with the hardware-to-touch emulation- apps that have popped up lately. If nothing else, playing Angry Birds with that controller on the bus would be worth it just to see people stare in disbelief. In the mean while, Windows tablet users might want to hit the how-to link and see if they can make their own.
[How-to via Hackaday]
