Touchscreens work fantastic for certain types of games, but when there’s a lot of fast action, a physical joystick is the only way to go. And researchers at Keiko University have developed a controller that doesn’t need batteries or a connection to your device.
Unlike the JOYSTICK-IT which provides similar functionality by physically pressing on the touchscreen, this joystick sits over a phone or tablet’s front-facing camera. It’s made of a soft rubbery material so as you push it in all directions it deforms, and on the underside is a set of markers that are tracked by the camera as they skew and move. Translating the physical motions into the game.
https://gizmodo.com/put-a-real-arcade-joystick-on-your-ipad-5725986
The accuracy of the system is dependent on the resolution of the device’s camera, and its processing power since it needs to track the markers while a game is actually being played. And developers will have to specifically include support for the joystick, where as other solutions work right out of the box. [DigInfo via Engadget]
