Useless (so far) but interesting implementation of Sudden Motion Sensor technology in laptops

[Eug]

http://www.kernelthread.com/software/ams/

"Apple added a feature called Sudden Motion Sensor (SMS) to the PowerBook line in early 2005. The sensor attempts to prevent data loss by parking the heads of an active disk drive after detecting a "sudden motion", which could be due to strong vibrations or a fall."

So this guy has now written software to move the windows on screen to keep them upright regardless of the screen orientation. Rotate the screen one way, and the window rotates the opposite direction.

Video

 

[rh71]

IBM Thinkpads already have a similar kind of technology. It braces for falls. I don't know the technical details, but I'm sure you've seen the commercials.

Anyway, you're right about the screen orientation being useless. You're not supposed to have drives on an angle other than 90/180/270 degrees anyway.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

thats pretty cool...

 

[FFactory0x]

Kind of cool but i dont understand why you would need this. So you can turn your laptop upside down and watch movies?

 

[loup garou]

I saw that on gizmodo yesterday. Very cool. I don't know what sort of future applications can be done with the sensors, but until then, I'm all for useless hacking!

 

[Slacker]

That would be awesomw for mortorcycle racing games

 

[Eug]

Originally posted by: FFactory0x
Kind of cool but i dont understand why you would need this.

Like I said it's useless (so far).