experiments with the apple motion sensor
i made some observations using amstracker and excel. i'm still trying to figure out if AMS is directly reporting acceleration, or if some processing is done on the numbers before they are reported. any thoughts on this if you have experience with this, or insight from the data in the spreadsheet?
when i take the mean z reading from the AMS while the powerbook is at rest, i get 49. i realized that that should be due to the force of gravity. when i divide 49 by 9.8 (the force of gravity in meters/second^2) i get 5. so, it seems, for the z axis (and possibly the x and y axes as well), i can get the acceleration in meters/second^2 by dividing by 5. i might be able to do something useful with this!
ideas so far:
adium doesn't like it when i shake the powerbook, apparently.
when i take the mean z reading from the AMS while the powerbook is at rest, i get 49. i realized that that should be due to the force of gravity. when i divide 49 by 9.8 (the force of gravity in meters/second^2) i get 5. so, it seems, for the z axis (and possibly the x and y axes as well), i can get the acceleration in meters/second^2 by dividing by 5. i might be able to do something useful with this!
ideas so far:
- a widget that shows what direction is up (for when the user is very drunk).
- a widget that shows airline cockpit gauges for pitch, roll, and possibly rate of descent.
- an etch-a-sketch widget where you tilt to draw, and shake the laptop to erase (like a real etch-a-sketch)-tilt-a-sketch?
- a superball widget, that does nothing except accurately move a bouncy ball around your screen according to the laws of physics.
- finally, possibly a useful one: a dead-reckoning navigator that overlays the user's position on google maps given a known starting location.
adium doesn't like it when i shake the powerbook, apparently.