Binary Fortress Software is best known for their wallpaper software Display Fusion but also home to some other interesting software products. One that has been added today is called Shockdraw and its more of a proof of concept application. The concept of accelerometer in notebooks is pretty new to me I have to admit, not even sure if my Toshiba notebook has one build in or not. Can’t remember seeing it in the product’s description.
The demonstration video at the Shockdraw website looks pretty interesting though especially if you consider that the application has a size of 48 Kilobytes which includes the source code.
ShockDraw is a proof of concept program that I wrote to learn how to read the accelerometer in notebooks. Just start up ShockDraw and tilt your notebook to draw on the screen. Tilt it left and the line on the screen will move left, tilt it back and the line will move up on the screen. It isn’t meant to be a full game or anything other than a tech demo. I have provided both an executable and the source code if you are interested in seeing how it works. Keep in mind that it’s a tech demo and not production ready code.
Basically what needs to be done is to start the application and paint on the screen by tilting the notebook in a direction. Tilting it up for example would draw the line to the top while tilting it to the lower right corner would make it draw in that direction.
I suggest you take a look at the demonstration video to see how it works. And if anyone could let me know if an accelerometer is build into every notebook or only into special ones.
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I think it’s far from “every”, accelerometer in notebooks is mainly used to stop hard drive (to reduce damage) when notebook is falling. So they are used mostly in smaller and more expensive ones.
Macbooks and MBPs do include accelerometers. Also, take a look at “MacSaber”, another awesome use for it
IBM/Lenovo thinkpads have had accelerometers build in since the T40 series. The program works fine with my T60.