ECERTech Releases TiltCONTROL

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ecertech.com/' target='_blank'>http://www.ecertech.com/</a><br /><br /></div>"Introducing the latest and greatest way to interface with your PDA, Mobile Phone or Mobile Gaming device, whether it be a PocketPC, Palm OS device or a Nokia N-GAGE. By simply plugging the TiltCONTROL into any supported device you can control any application or game on your PDA, phone or mobile gaming machine by simply tilting the device from left to right or up and down. Use it to play games, scroll up and down the pages of documents or web pages, draw masterpieces or flip the pages of an electronic book with the flick of a wrist. The applications are endless."<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/parekh-20040109-TiltControl.jpg" /><br /><br />I'd love to see such technology built into Pocket PCs, but this looks like a cool little add-on for some applications and games.

[paulevs]

What a brilliant idea and will be a much better way to control simulation games ! - Besides, I'm always leaning to one side or the other whilst playing pictured game ! :lol:

[gohtor]

I wonder why they didn't build it as an sd io device. it looks like it's currently a serial device.

&lt;shrug>

[bibap]

It might be useful in reading ebooks, because by 4155 doesn't have a jog dial and it is a pain in the neck to keep pressing the down part of the 5 way switch to change pages.

[gohtor]

I doubt this is a true analog control device. I remember playing with a nintendo power glove way back on the NES days. It was fun to try but gets annoying when you want to find the "dead zone"

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder why they didn't build it as an sd io device. it looks like it's currently a serial device. &lt;shrug>

Seems like a smart move to me - many people probably install the games onto their SD memory card, so having them remove it would be a bad experience. Besides, what else is that bottom port used for when you're away from your sync cradle? Seems brilliant to me! :D

[aroma]

Oooh... this could make for one cool etch-a-sketch type device. :)

[T-Will]

You guys remember those marble maze things where you tilt the board and try to get the marball through the maze without having it drop into one of the holes? That would be a cool game to go with this device.

[Steven Cedrone]

Oooh... this could make for one cool etch-a-sketch type device. :)

Or the game where you "guided" a marble around a maze by tilting the board (remember that one???)

Steve

[Kevin Remhof]

I wonder why they didn't build it as an sd io device. it looks like it's currently a serial device. &lt;shrug>

Seems like a smart move to me - many people probably install the games onto their SD memory card, so having them remove it would be a bad experience. Besides, what else is that bottom port used for when you're away from your sync cradle? Seems brilliant to me! :D

Agreed, but... the HP iPaq 1900 series doesn't have a true serial port. I've been doing some GPS research and coming up short for the 1900 series (except for the 1940 with Bluetooth, of course). Here's a link about it: http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&amp;file=viewtopic&amp;t=5195&amp;highlight=1910&amp;sid=5a416d0d19186776e75fd5da0f23c93c

What I really want is to see the Palm game Mulg with this tilt technology. It's based on an old game called Oxyd. Man, I loved Oxyd and Mulg. Two great games.

Here's the Mulg stuff for Palm: http://www.harbaum.org/till/palm/mulg/

OK, enough rambling for now.

[Steven Cedrone]

You guys remember those marble maze things where you tilt the board and try to get the marball through the maze without having it drop into one of the holes? That would be a cool game to go with this device.

You beat me to the draw... But I spelled marble correctly... :wink:

Steve

[Pat Logsdon]

Or the game where you "guided" a marble around a maze by tilting the board (remember that one???)
Ah yes, I have fond memories of that one. For some reason, it was endlessly fascinating. I think I got as a excited about that game as I did with "Pole Position" on the TI 99-4a. :mrgreen:

Here it is (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00000ISLL/102-0840630-8502515?v=glance) on Amazon. 8)

Back on topic - I wonder how much you have to move it to turn a page? If it's too much, the d-pad would probably still be easier...

[quidproquo]

Pretty cool.... but who want's that inch and 1/2 of hardware sticking out :?:

Looks prime to break off. Now, what would be REALLY sweet would be to see this type of techonology built INSIDE of a PPC. Turn it on/off with a tap.

That would be great for these type games, turning ebook pages, scrolling down your contacts, paging through a monthly calendar...etc.

Anything the up/down/left/right joy pad can do....this could replace/supplement.

The key would be to turn it OFF with a tap or button push as well...because once you find your contact....you don't want it to "scroll away" once you tilt the PPC to view it. Maybe a toggle it on/off button on the side... cool 8)

[dean_shan]

This would be fun for maze games and racing games.

[stjohn1335]

Or how about the classic 'Marble Madness' arcade game using this thing? Might actually be easier to use than the old 8-way joystick, and would feel much more realistic!

EDIT: How about Pole Position too?

[Rudolf]

Or better still, it could switch between landscape/portrait once that is supported by the OS without soft reset.

[claud9999]

I have a USB joystick at home that does just this and it cost me something like $15...(and it has buttons and a d-pad as well, the tilt can either act as an analog input or simulate a d-pad.)

'course, I doubt this company will be making anywhere near as many units as the joystick I have...

FYI, even using tilt in the joystick I have is a novelty and not terribly easy/useful. Buyer beware, this will likely end up in the junk drawer after the novelty wears off...

I think I'll pass on this one, but it's an interesting idea.

[T-Will]

You guys remember those marble maze things where you tilt the board and try to get the marball through the maze without having it drop into one of the holes? That would be a cool game to go with this device.

You beat me to the draw... But I spelled marble correctly... :wink:

Steve

LOL, I spelled it right the first time... :lol: Must've brain farted on the second one... :wink:

[trapper]

FYI, even using tilt in the joystick I have is a novelty and not terribly easy/useful. Buyer beware, this will likely end up in the junk drawer after the novelty wears off...


Tilt control in a PDA is a perfect addition. Anything that makes the PDA more intuitive and natural to use is extremely useful, and this device is a great help for that, especially for games. It really should be built into every high end PDA, but I predict even this device will be a huge success.

[iPAQ_ace]

Seems like a smart move to me - many people probably install the games onto their SD memory card, so having them remove it would be a bad experience. Besides, what else is that bottom port used for when you're away from your sync cradle? Seems brilliant to me! :D

Definately agree. I remember hearing rumours about this being in a Pocket PC concept a while ago. Thought this kind of stuff was further down the road than this!

I'd love to try it out, but wonder if this is one accessory that would have its novelty wear off after a while...

For everyday people not tech savvy; me walking around with my iPAQ, tilting it around while playing Marble Madness and making faces might get me some rather strange looks :lol:

[Pat Logsdon]

For everyday people not tech savvy; me walking around with my iPAQ, tilting it around while playing Marble Madness and making faces might get me some rather strange looks :lol:
And of course, moving the body side to side in conjunction with the movement on the screen is necessary, too, making for even stranger looks... :D

I once managed to fold myself up in a folding chair while playing "Parsec" because of that... :mrgreen:

[cmlpreston]

Tilt control in a PDA is a perfect addition. Anything that makes the PDA more intuitive and natural to use is extremely useful, and this device is a great help for that, especially for games. It really should be built into every high end PDA, but I predict even this device will be a huge success.

Yeah. Compaq had a product called the Itsy which had accelerometer control - see here (http://research.compaq.com/wrl/projects/itsy/)

Some specs:
# The Itsy Pocket Computer is a research prototype developed in Compaq's Western Research Laboratory in 1998.
# CPU - Digital (Intel) StrongARM SA1100 processor (up to 200MHz)
# 32MB of DRAM and 32MB of flash (expandable up to 128MB of DRAM and 160MB of flash with optional daughter cards).
# 320x200 16-level grayscale display, touchscreen, buttons
# Built-in microphone, mono audio in and out, mono speaker
# Serial and slave USB; Li-ion battery charges from USB
# 115Kbps and 4Mbps IrDA
# 2-axis accelerometer for Rock 'n' Scroll user interface
# Support for power management research (selectable processor core voltage and hooks to monitor internal power consumption)
# Expansion via processor bus connector to daughter cards

The name "Rock'n'Scroll" pretty much sums it up :wink:

cmlp

[D.psi]

Yeah. Compaq had a product called the Itsy which had accelerometer control


I wondered if I was the only person to have stumbled across this one. It's actually a fairly old concept, I think the Itsy was being trialed internally at Compaq (for some reason, I thought it was DEC), back ~2000, or slightly before.

Apparently the UI was actually quite intuitive, the angle of the tilt, determined the speed of the scroll, therefore if you were looking for an S contact starting from A you would tilt it lots, until you got around ~N or so, then decrease the tilt to scroll slower, etc...

Be great to use this feature for reading e-books, unfortunately for MS reader, the entire concept of e-pagination makes this somewhat more difficult. You would need a big neutral zone, then a fairly wide 1 page zone, then a faster paging zone of smaller size.

I wonder if you could actually zero the neutral zone for various reading postures (i.e. sitting up, reclining in bed, lying sideways, etc...).

D.psi

[popabawa]

OK, I took the plunge and ordered one for my 2210. The $/£ exchange rate make it just too tempting!

I'm a real sucker for 'alternative' input devices - Maracas for Dreamcast Samba de Amiga and Bongo's for Gamecube Donkey Konga :)

It was shipped very quickly (to the UK) and I was emailled when it had been despatched. Very good.

It arrived yesterday. It's very small. 2.9cm wide x 2.6cm tall by 0.9cm deep so it doesn't really stick out much at all. When it's plugged in you don't really know it's there.

Installed the EMUL8R software and activated it using the key emailled to me. Still very nice.

You then plug the unit in and calibrate it. Still nice & easy. It's VERY sensitive. There is some amount of 'wobbling' (i.e. small fluctuations) in the readings but this is do with the hardware (as explained in the FAQ) and doesn't really affect performance.

Once calibrated you can create any number of 'profiles' for different applications. This can be achieved via a wizard or manually. I went through the wizard once then used this base profile to create others.

You can emulate stylus movement or d-pad presses. Both seem to work well but I've not experimented with stylus emulation yet (an example in the manual gives an etch-a-sketch type of profile for notepad).

You can also emulate how fast and how often the keypress takes place.

My first profile was to create a simple vertical tilt for eBook reading. After a little tweaking with the dead zone and disabling the horizontal control I had it working just the way I wanted. A tiny little flick forwards & backwards a page. Sweeet!

Thought I 'd try the demo of 'Marble Worlds' for a bit of gaming action. Again, profile creation was easy but the tweaking took a little longer to get the sensitivity just right (it was VERY sensitive to start with, the slightest movement sent the ball spinning off the nearest ledge LOL!). This is indeed loads of fun as suspected earlier in the thread. It makes the game quite a bit more of a challenge than using the d-pad but it's all the better for it.

So far, this is a great toy. It works very well. No complaints with the hardware.

MY only complaints are really with the software. Configuration isn't easy to get to grips with. You need to RTFM to understand it fully as the settings aren't really very well explained on the Pocket PC. Once you've played for a while it's pretty easy though.

You also have to manually launch the settings for it to work with an application which is a pain. This is a multi-tap process so it needs to be mapped to a hardware button really.

I guess these could be fairly easily rectified though.

If anyone would like any more detail on anything - just ask!

Regards, Iain.

[trapper]

OK, I took the plunge and ordered one for my 2210.

Thanks for the review. With all of the "still nice" comments at first I was expecting you to report it wouldn't function at all, and was a waste of money. Would it be possible to simulate scolling by tilting or are you limited to d-pad presses? Also, is it easy to change the reference point for e-book browsing if you changed the viewing angle of the screen?

Have you tested it with the Kart 2002 program shown in the demo movie?

[popabawa]

I'm not saying it's not a waste of money... :wink: Definately a "nice to have".

You can simulate withe D-pad presses or stylus movemnet, both work well, so yes, you can scroll with it easily.

You can quite easily change the 'dead zone' angle for eBook veiwing at a different angle but it takes a few taps so it's not that convenient. If the deadzone reset could be mapped to a hardware button that'd work very well.

Not tested the Kart 2002 though that looks cool (I hadn't looked at the video until you mentioned it then), I'll try it at the weekend if I get the chance.

I'm still playing the marble words demo but it's SO hard with the tilt control!

Iain.

[Tom W.M.]

I have a Logitec gamepad with tilt control, and I find that while it has potential, it is too sensitive for enjoyable use. I have to constantly restrain myself when I use this gamepad, because other wise I loose control—not the sort of experience wanted for a game, where the controls should be as natural and intuitive as possible.

A nice idea, but not really practical.