The iPad is finally out – one feature that might caught your attention is the built-in accelerometer and the ability to control a game by tilting the device. For more than a year I was working on a similar idea for the PC Notebook market based on my original motion gamepad project that would allow playing a game by tilting the laptop/netbook. Now that iPad is out I hope that the notebook/netbook manufactures will catch up by incorporating MEMS sensor into their devices. Here is the result of my prototype , it is a USB attached device, but ideally I think this should be embedded into the laptop.
This guide is intended to everyone interested in inertial MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) sensors, in particular Accelerometers and Gyroscopes as well as combination IMU devices (Inertial Measurement Unit).
I'll try try to cover few basic but important topics in this article:
- what does an accelerometer measure
- what does a gyroscope (aka gyro) measure
- how to convert analog-to-digital (ADC) readings that you get from these sensor to physical units (those would be g for accelerometer, deg/s for gyroscope)
- how to combine accelerometer and gyroscope readings in order to obtain accurate information about the inclination of your device relative to the ground plane
