In-Mouse Accelerometers

From the leaked Windows 8 plans, it seems that Microsoft is looking at a future with richer sensors on personal computers. I would love to see this happen. I'm a big fan of Apple's popularization of accelerometers in mobile devices, too. Interaction can be so much richer than just keyboard, mouse, monitor, and speakers. Ubiquitous cameras and microphones would be sweet, though creepy.

On that topic, someone in my research lab recently made a comment about how cool it would be to put accelerometers and gyros in mice. Potentially you could go without the light sensor entirely. See IMUs for more. The Wii remote is sort of like this. And accelerometer mice have been made before.

The counter argument (from someone else in my lab here) is that full accelerometers and gyros would be much more expensive than current mouse technology, especially for the same amount of reliability and precision. But accelerometers and IMUs aren't completely off the charts for price. Maybe you could go cheap and just augment normal mice with accelerometer only for now. (And the raw part is even much cheaper than the breakout boards.)

I mean, it would be sweet if you could pick up your mouse and wave it around for 3D control in certain apps and games, right?

Logitech, Microsoft, Apple, someone, please get this out there. Thanks in advance.

WebGL and NaCl on Google Chrome on Lucid 64-bit

Just reporting that the latest dev channel version of Google Chrome runs NaCl demos (using local Python-based server) and WebGL demos beautifully on the 64-bit Ubuntu 10.04 computer I'm using. Just '--enable-nacl --enable-webgl' (and maybe '--user-data-dir=...'), and you're running.

Don't use this configuration for everyday browsing, of course. Who knows how many security holes there are.

Chrome Extensions are a piece of cake to work with, too. I hope Mozilla Jetpack gets Firefox there soon. Old-timey Firefox extensions are just painful. Well, not that I should need an extension if I have NaCl, but it's still nice. And the extension would potentially allow one load for all sites instead of separate load per site.

Hrmm. Next question, can I put Bullet Physics into Chrome NaCl without much blood, sweat, or tears? If so, I think I won the sweepstakes.

Please say we get this stuff by default in our browsers soon. Pretty please. I mean, I can't hardly believe how nice this would be.

'null' is a weak excuse for an empty list.

That's all.

Google Chrome Frame is my hero.

Well, I hope it will be once it's out.

The thought of fixing IE once and for all just gives me chills.

In any case, Chrome Frame answers my previous hopes for a Gecko-based version of the same idea.

And a function never cries.

I've been getting fed up with the question of what methods to put in a class which helper methods should be elsewhere. Mixins and extension methods are two ways to address this topic. They have their pros and cons.

But I'm becoming more and more a fan of simple, top-level functions. Wither OOP. Everything old is new again for me, and each function can be an island, especially with multiple dispatch.

Well, there's that question of how to control data access and abstraction of types. I don't have it fully worked out yet, but I'm hoping to find a nice solution that keeps things as simple as possible.

Why developmental robotics?

The field of developmental robotics is often approached in a philosophical fashion. That's awesome and all, but there's also the practical reason: laziness. But I guess I've said this before.

Side note, I'm not sure I really get the difference between laziness and impatience.

Reason to boycott (and litigate against) Apple?

This whole iPhone section 3.3.1 thing is nasty. Sure, UIs are notoriously bad when ported, despite some examples to the contrary, but let an approver or the user base sort that out. Further, some base features (not always written in C!) are helpful across platforms even if the UI is tricked out for each.

Apple's a worse monopoly than Microsoft. I can't think enough how much I don't ever want to give Apple any money ever again.

Sadly, my convictions wane with time, but I'm not in the habit of giving Apple money anyway. One Mac Mini and one iPod a few years ago. A bit of iTunes. But I think it's time for me to write them off.

The only reason to have a Mac is to make sure apps and web pages do work there.

I wouldn't be surprised if Apple's in a long-term strategy to eliminate traditional Macs entirely. They'll have revenue reasons enough with some time as well as migration strategies for developers currently banking on Mac. Then, it's just App Store land ...