Sure, the PlayStation Move hasn't had the explosive hacking scene of its Microsoft-branded competitor, but that doesn't mean it's not capable of some mind-boggling secondary functions. Modders at PABR Technologies recently combined the controller, a turntable, and ... a bunch of other tools we've never heard of before to create a Copernitron: A device capable of finding geographic north, determining latitude and measuring the rotation of Earth.
There's a lot of nigh-incomprehensible science in the device's video demonstration (which is posted after the jump), but you don't need a Ph.D. in physics to appreciate the complexity of the final result. You may need one to understand what the hell it's doing, though.
@Foetoid Mod it, use wiimc. It can play dvds and all kinds of different video container files. Btw im posting this from my wii, from the year 2006! in the yeeear twoo thousand, in the year two thousand!
@Foetoid How about investing in more than one game console? Not only will you be able to play all of those amazing Wii games, you'll get to play some amazing PS360 games as well, and then also take advantage of their multi-function nature when your other media-players are on the fritz.
Aside from the Move controller and the netbook, this video looks like it came straight out of the 50s. Colors, sounds, and hell even the font makes this video look like a 50s educational video converted from filmstrips to VHS for your student's viewing pleasure.
Translated into English: gyroscopes, like a Foucault pendulum, and like the gyroscope in the Move controller, like to stay in one orientation. If something tries to rotate them, they push back in the opposite direction. The Move controller detects that push, and sends that signal to the PS3 via Bluetooth.
Here, the thing that is trying to rotate the gyroscope is the rotation of the earth. The Move controller is laid perfectly flat on that cardboard tube, and the gyroscope signals are sent to the laptop using Bluetooth. However, it must have been too hard to see that signal when the controller was laying still with respect to the ground, so that's why they added the turntable; it rotates at a constant rate, so the contribution it makes to the gyroscope's signal is constant, and therefore, easy to account for. It's like adding +3 or something to every measurement. Anyway, it must have been easier to see the earth's rotation effects with the turntable spinning (maybe the guy's website has more info about that).
Oh, and the Helmholtz coils aren't as complicated as they sound. They're literally just loops of copper wire, with a current running through them. Electric currents create magnetic fields, and when you arrange the wires into two loops like that, you make a nice smooth uniform magnetic field between the loops. The guy did this to counteract the earths magnetic field, which apparently affects the Move's gyroscope enough to make things difficult (it must have something to do with the sensitive electronics in this particular kind of gyroscope). So basically, if earth's magnetic field was like 1 gauss in one direction, he put just enough current through his coils to make 1 gauss of magnetic field in the opposite direction to cancel it out between the coils. That's why the compass didn't work when he turned on the coils.
As for the rotating platform thing at 0:38, I have no earthly idea.
Hahaha thats BRILLIANT! Wow, I've never heard the Move being compared to a sex toy or a wii remote before. Now that I look at it, how could it NOT be! Your statement was so spot on, it totally destroys this and really ALL future hacks done with the move to show what science and application can do. You get a gold star, and its coming to your house! RIGHT NOW! look for it inside your mail box!
Dont move from your mail box, or even sleep or eat! Just wait.
Wait... and starve. Then less space will be wasted on the planet and on the forums. Your comments are the most unispired "hack" comments Ive ever heard.
