copernitron
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PlayStation Move Hack: Tracking the earth's rotation
Sure, the PlayStation Move hasn't had the explosive hacking scene of its Microsoft-branded competitor, but that doesn't mean it's not capable of some mind-boggling secondary functions. Modders at PABR Technologies recently combined the controller, a turntable, and ... a bunch of other tools we've never heard of before to create a Copernitron: A device capable of finding geographic north, determining latitude and measuring the rotation of Earth. There's a lot of nigh-incomprehensible science in the device's video demonstration (which is posted after the jump), but you don't need a Ph.D. in physics to appreciate the complexity of the final result. You may need one to understand what the hell it's doing, though.
PlayStation Move, turntable used to track the Earth's rotation
The above pictured contraption, called Copernitron, features a PlayStation Move controller, a turntable, and a homebrew Helmholtz coil (you know, for canceling out interference caused by our planet's magnetic field). By sending data to a Linux PC via Bluetooth, this bad boy will measure the Earth's rotation, find geographic north, and determine altitude. Apparently, this is achieved by measuring the controller's subtle movements as it spins around at 45 RPM. And while the PS Move gyros are much more accurate than those of any other controller on the market, they're not too accurate: if they were, the designer points out, "ITAR might classify them as missile components. That's why we can't have nice motion tracking." See it in action after the break.
