Comments on: Demo of iPhone 3GS Digital Compass Used as View Control

By: Ziconic

Ziconic — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:19:14 +0000

The update that includes compass support is now live on the app store. Folks with a 3GS – enjoy.

By: christophe

christophe — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:13:21 +0000

Interference is a problem indeed. The compass works ok outside but is a little flaky indoor. But I'm sure things will improve rapidly.

By: Nathan Rae

Nathan Rae — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:48:20 +0000

How effective it will be depends on interference and other issues (which i'm sure they are aware of.
If it works for games though, it should work for displaying video by moving the screen around. Check out this video for a demo.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLZSn_6LPgo

obviously this is fake, but it could work…
nathan

By: Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:47:13 +0000

I hope they do. I know its primary purpose is for maps navigation, but even Apple noted how it can be used for games. So, I think it will be included since the iPod Touch is a gaming platform.

By: Josh Rosen

Josh Rosen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:45:30 +0000

Yeah, exactly the same with me!
When I first thought of the idea for a flying game for the iPhone (which became SciFly), I thought I'd be able to use the accelerometer to control the yaw, pitch and roll of the plane. Of course, you can't so I had to limit it to just 2 of the 3. I wonder if the magnetometer is sensitive enough to be used along with the accelerometer, or if there's some trick you can do to derive the orientation when the accelerometer is confused.

By: Dark NRG

Dark NRG — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:42:09 +0000

Boy, I blew off the compass thing, now I see this is REVOLUTIONARY!

By: Adams Immersive

Adams Immersive — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:44:53 +0000

I sketched out designs for several such games when the iPhone first came out and I misunderstood what it could do. Now it really CAN do what I thought Hope I didn't throw away those design docs….

By: spiffyone

spiffyone — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:07:46 +0000

A game called Ghost Buddy (and another similar game) did something similar to this using just the iTouch/Phone accelerometer. The problem was that it really wasn't full 360 views. Using the built in compass one can bring that sort of idea to the next level.

Imagine, if you will, a true first person game, where moving the device itself changes the direction to which you are looking. Want to view something behind you? Turn your body around while holding the device up to your face. No need to move the device only as you can move your entire body in tandem with the device. In essence the little iTouch/Phone platform becomes something akin to a virtual reality device.

Hopefully Apple has the foresight to add in the digital compass to the next iPod touch. I admit to being blind to the possibilities such a capability had for games, but I've now seen the light.