Make some art with your phone sensors | Hacker News Reader

Make some art with your phone sensors

tautme.github.io

90 pointsadm423 comments

In 2024 I made something similar to this for Playdate, with mirroring and dynamic pen width and dithering based on speed of movement. It is fun https://gingerbeardman.itch.io/rorschach

I tried it out on a whim and it was really fun actually.

The only immediate improvement I could think of (which may be is there in the settings) is to change the zero point so I don't have to have the camera pointed at the floor.

Edit: can "zero" by clicking "begin" with phone pointed forward.

I did NOT know the motion sensors on my phone were THIS precise, that’s surprising

There was a project from 15 years ago where you could put an iPhone on a desk and if someone was typing, you could determine the keys being pressed via the accelerometer in the phone.

The original page seems to have died but you can still find the HN entry here; https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3203402

Found the original article on the archive.org

https://web.archive.org/web/20111021122406/https://www.wired...

This is the full "vibe code rabbit hole" I went down, with trying to understand what is possible with the sensors. https://tautme.github.io/phone-sensors/

great idea down this thread, make a guitar tuner that listens with the accelerometer. https://tautme.github.io/phone-sensors/accel-tuner.html

intersting that phones ask for permission to camera and mic, but not always for accelerometer

The motion sensors are also usable to listen to conversations...

2021:

https://csl.illinois.edu/news-and-media/42303

https://tautme.github.io/phone-sensors/accel-tuner.html

Is there a reliable way to trigger percussion?

tap the side of the phone, it responds to accelerometer sensor.

Tapped very hard, never worked once. Using android on pixel phone.

Same, also on a pixel

does this work on pixel?

https://tautme.github.io/phone-sensors/sensor_etch_pixel.htm...

Everything works expect the drums

Even just the plain etch-a-sketch using motion sensing is cool enough.

I suppose this might have been done already?

here is the full list, of trying something out with all the sensors. https://tautme.github.io/phone-sensors/

change paint brush size -> whistle

change color -> put finger in front if camera

make drum sound -> tap side of phone

A digital theremin! Very fun.

It seems to make the user dance, would fun to see video of people using it for the first time. haha

which reminds me of building breadboard RF sensors (using fixed caps with variable for calibrating parasitic capacitance) and since these are just oscillators you can calibrate a beat frequency (heterodyne mix) in audible range that has the theremin timbre of a squarish sine wave that you can plug straight to a speaker

it's cool lol

Reply on news.ycombinator.com