Joysticks

Not satisfied with simply controlling 120 pound robots with a Microsoft Surface, one of the lead programmers from this video ( youtube.com and youtube.com ) took a week off and hacked together an amazing on-screen joystick driver for Windows and the Microsoft Surface. Eric McCann's adaptation of the DREAM Controller is based on Mark Micire's PhD research www.cs.uml.edu and can provide all of the functionality of a physical joystick through multi-touch interaction. By simply placing five fingers on the table, the joystick is dynamically re-sized and oriented to the user's hands automatically on every hand placement. It can also be moved to any position of the screen by dragging the index and middle fingers. To demonstrate the functionality, this video shows the Microsoft Flight Simulator and Valve Corporation's Portal controlled exclusively through hand interaction on the tabletop. Visit the Robotics Lab robotics.cs.uml.edu and be sure to subscribe to this channel http . More fun to come... (Can anyone say steroids for Starcraft?) ;)