This reminds me of the guy on sharktank that had an app for iPhone to take panoramic pictures on its own by standing up the phone on its edge and it used the vibrating frequency to move.
The app was nothing big or special and no one wanted. The programming on how they achieved it was all anyone wanted and they made a shit load of money selling it.
And no-one actually uses it. Well done them, rich without consequences, living the dream.
I drove my steam controller to work today.
But why? You can just… put it on the charger.
Science isn’t about “why?” it’s about “why not?”
Why not? Because if fucking stupid. It would take you longer to set this bullshit up than it would to just set it on the puck.
This was clearly a project someone did for fun, it’s not meant to be practical or actually useful. Everyone else understands this and is making jokes about it, and you’re lashing out at people acting like the joke responses were people being serious.
It should be obvious that it’s not actually very helpful to have a controller that can charge itself, if placed within a few feet of a charger, on a perfectly flat surface, under a webcam, with a running computer and webapp managing the whole thing. It also wasn’t useful to make a program to “drive” the controller with wasd. It also wasn’t useful to make a program to sing chiptunes with the vibration motors. It wasn’t even useful for valve to make the controller scream when dropped. It’s just funny, and people are enjoying it.
Why would anyone buy a Roomba when they can just vacuum the floor themselves?
I know you think you are making a point but you aren’t roombas do a shit job and you have to vacuum anyway.
I had a roomba it was garbage
I’ve never been sold on the roomba idea, but vacuuming can take some time and physical effort depending on the size of the living/working space.
Putting a controller on a charging puck should take all of five seconds, to be generous. It even has magnets!
I feel like the real answer here with the controller is “because we can/because it’s cool”
Well, also “as proof of a concept that may to lead to something more useful”
Also true! Though in a Roomba’s case with room mapping, sometimes more terrifying… 😔
I was kinda joking with the Roomba comparison.
I could kinda see a use for this where the controller could wake itself up and try to plug itself in if the battery gets low, but the steam controller battery life is so good that it’s a pretty low need
What if…I point the webcam…at other stuff?
Then it won’t find the charger :(
Oh… Well it’ll keep trying though, right?
Look, if you just want something that vibrates there are a lot of easier ways to achieve that.
But this appears to have some sort of built in gps that knows where to vibrate precisely.
Yes, and then it becomes toy story 12, the latest pixar adventure where andy has moved on from the old toys and now plays videogames.
But when not playing games he still tries to “charge” the controller, right?
Toy Story 2?
