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Cool hardware hacks

LewiePLewieP Registered User regular
edited September 2007 in Games and Technology
I just stumbled upon this funny article -
Daniel M. German found a way to automate perspective correction and projection adjustments for his wide angle photography. He does this by using a Wiimote to record the pitch and roll of the camera at the time a photo is taken. This information can then be fed directly into panotools, instead of manually entering control lines and processing the images to calculate these tilt values after the fact.

I modified an open source DarwiinRemote to record inclination. It happens that if you keep the WiiR in a stationary state, its three accelerometers can be used as two inclinometers. Fortunately most of the time, when one takes a handheld photo, one keeps the camera steady. Steady enough to read the inclination of the WiiR.

I also modified the driver to record the reading from the accelometers, the estimated inclinations, and the timestamp. I would then use the timestamp to match the images from the camera to the readings from the WiiR.

This is a cool idea. I would not be surprized to find high end cameras internally recording and stamping this information into photographs in the near future. A lot of consumer cameras already support panoramic stitching, so with digital accelerometers and tilt sensors being as cheap as they are, why not internally support adjustments like perspective correction or projection remapping?

Using the Wii Remote to correct perspective

And was hugely impressed. With no tech support or documentation people have made hardware do something that is has allways had the potential for, but never had the software to do.

Another favourite hack of mine is XBMC, which I have not got set up fully yet (and nearly broke my Xbox in the process of doing...) works fantastically, and I am baffled at why Microsoft didn't just money hat the guys that make it to make the same thing for 360, they could even charge for it, since the biggest drawback of XMBC is no HD support.

Anyway, this is a thread for discussing great hacks of videogame hardware, I am sure there are some fantastic ones I haven't heard of.

LewieP on

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    Captain KCaptain K Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    I honestly can't figure out what the article is saying he's done, but it sounds cool. Any photography geeks want to explain?

    Captain K on
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    CycophantCycophant Registered User regular
    edited September 2007
    He basically used the motion-sensing abilities of the Wii remote to record the angles he's taking photographs at, so that later he can use this information to correct for perspective and whatnot.

    Seems like a lot of work, considering a $20 digital inclinometer works just as well, if not better. Or a $5 manual inclinometer, if you want to putz around with it. And both can be bought at most hardware stores.

    But hey, if he wants to pull a MacGyver and build working bomb out of a paperclip, a stick of gum and 3 unshelled peanuts, all the more power to him.

    Cycophant on
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