ControlFreak
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Control Freak turns any object into a game controller
Apparently the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea doesn't mind students going a little out of the box for their masters thesis projects, seeing as they let Haiyan Zhang develop an interesting system intended to translate the motion of everyday objects into input devices for simple video games. When the Control Freak device is clamped onto a "host object," whether it's a door, an office chair or your lab partner, it starts interpreting the host's sounds and movements, representing them as simple actions in a selection of specially designed flash games. The video demonstrations on the site suggest it has a long way to go before it catches up to the refinement of Nintendo's Wiimote, but it's already a heck of a lot better than the Powerglove ever was (don't front). On a related note, we have to wonder if this school gives out masters degrees for turning video game controllers into everyday objects.
