story

Google uses accelerometer API in Jules Verne Google Doodle (opens in new tab)

googleblog.blogspot.com

105 pointstomwans15y ago32 comments

32 comments

Hacktivist15y ago

Here are the images if you want to cheat.

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-1.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-2.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-3.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-4.png

nostrademons15y ago

FYI, the accelerometer works on a MacBook Pro with Chrome or Firefox as well. I remember when Kris showed me the demo on his Mac, I was like "Wow, you can do that on a normal laptop?"

ugh15y ago

All kinds of laptops have had accelerometers since the early 2000s or so. (IBM ran commercials for their ThinkPads with “airbag” all the time. Yep, this was already built into laptops when IBM still sold ThinkPads.) They stop the hard drive when accelerations get too extreme.

lloeki15y ago

Yet having the accelerometer made usable by software is actually nice. It was (and still can be, sometimes in HD themselves) often a hardwired feature. Also, there's quite a gap in sensibility between detecting a drop and registering subtle variations of the acceleration vector.

Isamu15y ago

I thought they stopped the drive when the acceleration is zero (freefall). If the acceleration is high, it's probably too late.

ugh15y ago

That makes a lot of sense. Fun fact: The astronauts on the ISS use ThinkPads [0]. They would have to disable the accelerometer if their laptops had one.

(I’m now just going to claim that zero was the extreme I was referring to.)

[0] http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Susan_Helms_...

Edit: The laptop in question — model A31p from 2003 — doesn’t have an accelerometer. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:A31p

logophobia15y ago

Zero acceleration only happens after an object has been falling for a long time (more then a few seconds) and the friction is in balance with gravity. Zero acceleration also happens when the laptop is just sitting on a table. Probably wouldn't be a good measure to stop the drive.

Initially, an object falling will accelerate with g=9.81m/s^2, after it reaches the ground it will de-accelerate to a speed of 0m/s in a couple of ms. You are confusing weightlessness/zero-g with no acceleration.

1 more reply

pero15y ago

And which devices that support Firefox or Chrome actually have accelerometers? It doesn't work on my Froyo phone...

jonah15y ago

ThinkPads, Mac Laptops

mhansen15y ago

Doesn't work on my new Thinkpad T510, running Ubuntu and Chromium 9.0.

I know it has an accelerometer (I've seen the bundled Windows software use it), but I don't know where the API to access that data is.

martey15y ago

See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/HDAPS .

I am not sure whether Firefox or Chrome/Chromium on Linux will actually read the data that is provided by hdaps.

1 more reply

SoftwareMaven15y ago

Works on my iPhone with Safari and my MacBook with Chrome, but not on my MacBook with Safari. Go figure.

windsurfer15y ago

It doesn't only support Firefox and chrome, but my N900 has both and it works fine (though slowly).

younata15y ago

the nexus 1/s, probably.

nostrademons15y ago

Default Nexus 1 install has a Mobile Webkit browser, which doesn't even get the interactive version.

It works - somewhat - on an iPad - but there's a problem in that tilting the iPad makes the screen rotate and locking the screen seems to disable the tilt events.

Best experience is on a MacBook with Chrome, IMHO.

pclark15y ago

Incredible that the clever google logo doesn't work on the google phone...

younata15y ago

I just tried it with my mac. I was surprised that chrome had access to the accelerometers. I thought they were only used to make sure the hard drive doesn't die in case of dropage.

1 more reply

estel15y ago

Ditto default Nexus S. Dang.

ars15y ago

Spec (for webkit based browsers): http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source-orientation.html of how to access acceleration data.

Mozilla does it somewhat differently:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Detecting_device_orientatio...

paulirish15y ago

You can view source on this page for the normalization code to harmonize both implementations:

http://studio.html5rocks.com/samples/orientation/index.html (see VideoPhysicsController.prototype._onTilt() )

willscott15y ago

The accelerometer interaction hooks into javascript via browser events.

Here's the basic usage for chrome: (for firefox the event is MozOrientation, and values are radians rather than degrees)

  window.addEventListener('deviceorientation', function(evt) {
    var x = evt.gamma, y = evt.beta;
  }, false);

ben104015y ago

Doesn't work on my 2010 Macbook Air. I was a little confused until it dawned on me that due to the SSD, Apple had no reason to build in an accelerometer.

nrbafna15y ago

I navigated through the entire doodle just to see if there was something encoded in it as well, like in the cr-48 ad.

tomwansOP15y ago

well ?

Groxx15y ago

Huzzah for Whale Sharks[1]! Funky critters. The "Google" at the bottom is a nice touch, too.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark

chaosmachine15y ago

It would be interesting to log this data, and try to figure out how many users are leaning back, in a car, etc. I wonder what kind of patterns you'd see.

jrockway15y ago

Doesn't work on Android? Sometimes Google confuses me.

noonespecial15y ago

I didn't know they'd done it. I opened Firefox and grabbed my Macbook to head for the couch and was most surprised by the awesome.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

32 comments

Hacktivist15y ago

Here are the images if you want to cheat.

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-1.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-2.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-3.png

http://www.google.com/logos/2011/verne-hp-4.png

nostrademons15y ago

FYI, the accelerometer works on a MacBook Pro with Chrome or Firefox as well. I remember when Kris showed me the demo on his Mac, I was like "Wow, you can do that on a normal laptop?"

ugh15y ago

lloeki15y ago

Isamu15y ago

I thought they stopped the drive when the acceleration is zero (freefall). If the acceleration is high, it's probably too late.

ugh15y ago

That makes a lot of sense. Fun fact: The astronauts on the ISS use ThinkPads [0]. They would have to disable the accelerometer if their laptops had one.

(I’m now just going to claim that zero was the extreme I was referring to.)

[0] http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:Susan_Helms_...

Edit: The laptop in question — model A31p from 2003 — doesn’t have an accelerometer. http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Category:A31p

logophobia15y ago

1 more reply

pero15y ago

And which devices that support Firefox or Chrome actually have accelerometers? It doesn't work on my Froyo phone...

jonah15y ago

ThinkPads, Mac Laptops

mhansen15y ago

Doesn't work on my new Thinkpad T510, running Ubuntu and Chromium 9.0.

I know it has an accelerometer (I've seen the bundled Windows software use it), but I don't know where the API to access that data is.

martey15y ago

See http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/HDAPS .

I am not sure whether Firefox or Chrome/Chromium on Linux will actually read the data that is provided by hdaps.

1 more reply

SoftwareMaven15y ago

Works on my iPhone with Safari and my MacBook with Chrome, but not on my MacBook with Safari. Go figure.

windsurfer15y ago

It doesn't only support Firefox and chrome, but my N900 has both and it works fine (though slowly).

younata15y ago

the nexus 1/s, probably.

nostrademons15y ago

Default Nexus 1 install has a Mobile Webkit browser, which doesn't even get the interactive version.

It works - somewhat - on an iPad - but there's a problem in that tilting the iPad makes the screen rotate and locking the screen seems to disable the tilt events.

Best experience is on a MacBook with Chrome, IMHO.

pclark15y ago

Incredible that the clever google logo doesn't work on the google phone...

younata15y ago

I just tried it with my mac. I was surprised that chrome had access to the accelerometers. I thought they were only used to make sure the hard drive doesn't die in case of dropage.

1 more reply

estel15y ago

Ditto default Nexus S. Dang.

ars15y ago

Spec (for webkit based browsers): http://dev.w3.org/geo/api/spec-source-orientation.html of how to access acceleration data.

Mozilla does it somewhat differently:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en/Detecting_device_orientatio...

paulirish15y ago

You can view source on this page for the normalization code to harmonize both implementations:

http://studio.html5rocks.com/samples/orientation/index.html (see VideoPhysicsController.prototype._onTilt() )

willscott15y ago

The accelerometer interaction hooks into javascript via browser events.

Here's the basic usage for chrome: (for firefox the event is MozOrientation, and values are radians rather than degrees)

  window.addEventListener('deviceorientation', function(evt) {
    var x = evt.gamma, y = evt.beta;
  }, false);

ben104015y ago

Doesn't work on my 2010 Macbook Air. I was a little confused until it dawned on me that due to the SSD, Apple had no reason to build in an accelerometer.

nrbafna15y ago

I navigated through the entire doodle just to see if there was something encoded in it as well, like in the cr-48 ad.

tomwansOP15y ago

well ?

Groxx15y ago

Huzzah for Whale Sharks[1]! Funky critters. The "Google" at the bottom is a nice touch, too.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_shark

chaosmachine15y ago

It would be interesting to log this data, and try to figure out how many users are leaning back, in a car, etc. I wonder what kind of patterns you'd see.

jrockway15y ago

Doesn't work on Android? Sometimes Google confuses me.

noonespecial15y ago

I didn't know they'd done it. I opened Firefox and grabbed my Macbook to head for the couch and was most surprised by the awesome.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse