With gaming on tablets, the visual experience is often top-notch, but the controls are unfamiliar at best — even inadequate at times. But adding a traditional joystick is impractical, especially when aesthetics is a key selling point for manufacturers. Chicago-based Knowles Electronics has a fairly practical solution, however, and hopes that some manufacturers will adopt its Mems Joystick. At just 1.6mm tall, the joystick is slim enough for a device to maintain a svelte profile, and the 400 microamps it consumes during normal operation is relatively negligible, according to company reps. Tablets are just the start — Knowles built a series of prototypes to demonstrate a variety of potential applications.

We took the joystick for a spin on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, Motorola Atrix, Nintendo 3DS and a pair of laptops. All of the joystick prototypes connected using Bluetooth or USB, and were designed specifically for this CEATEC demonstration — sadly they won’t be available for purchase, though manufacturers could implement the controller into similar products. It took only a few seconds to get accustomed to the pair of joysticks mounted to the back of the Tab. Controlling gameplay felt natural, and we definitely preferred playing with a clear view of the display. We also navigated through Google Maps, and scrolled a web page — both experiences felt superior to moving around the touchscreen. The 3DS joystick functioned similarly to the native controller included with that device, though Knowles reps noted that it’s significantly smaller, and uses less power — and without compromise, it seems.

Jump past the break for a walkthrough of the devices we saw today, but try not to fall in love — you won’t be able to use the Joystick anytime soon, if manufacturers decide to implement them at all.

Continue reading Knowles Electronics Mems Joystick for Samsung Galaxy Tab, Nintendo 3DS hands-on (video)

Knowles Electronics Mems Joystick for Samsung Galaxy Tab, Nintendo 3DS hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 12:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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25 years on, I decided to take up an old hobby – electronics. Whereas Z80 microprocessors were the leading edge 25 years ago, today, microcontrollers are the chip of choice. So I needed to define a simple project to grown my knowledge from zero. I took an analogy on a radio controlled vehicle and decided that was it. I would re-use an ancient joystick at one end and use even more ancient fischertechnik from my childhood days to put together a joystick controlled vehicle. At the joystick end I use 16F873 microcontroller to read the voltages on the joystick and crunch the values down to a command. for each motor I have forward, backward or stop plus a pulse width modulated power rating from 0 to 100%. The command is assembled in ASCII and then sent down the wire at 1200 baud (wireless to come shortly, hopefully) . At the fischertechnik vehicle end of the wire, a 16F627 microcontroller de-serialises the message, checks the header and payload, and if it checks out OK, sets the motors directions and speeds. This is repeated several times each second. For the pulse width modulated speed control, I use a second thread kicked off 5000 times a second to prvide the pulses. An L293D dual bridge driver powers the motors at about 7v from the 4.8v logic levels of the 16F627 chip. There are about 350 lines of assembler on the vehicle and about 250 on the joystick, most of which is defensive programming, error checking and trace. I take the NASA approach to things like this, something is …
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