USB slingshot controller is for the birds
posted Feb 28th 2012 8:01am by Mike Szczysfiled under: peripherals hacks
This USB slingshot controller really brought a smile to our faces. Part of it is the delightfully silly promo video you’ll find after the break. [Simon Ford] combined nature and technology to bring this USB-enabled slingshot into existence.
The frame itself is from a branch he found in the Epping Forrest of London. He whittled away the bark, and hollowed out an opening in at the base of the ‘Y’ to receive an accelerometer board. It has a pair of female pin headers to interface with the mbed seen in the image above. But the real hack here is the code he wrote to translate accelerometer data into appropriate mouse movements. His success in the area makes this translate the virtual world of Angry Birds in a visceral experience of killing things with a slingshot.
We’re suckers for this type of project. Two examples that pop into mind are these musical instrument hacks for Rock Band 2.
Now this is AWESOME! lol great job! Wait until my wife sees this :)