I Built and Launched the First Airpods-Controlled Game
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
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AirpodsGamingInnovation
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The author built and launched a game controlled by AirPods using their spatial audio feature, sparking excitement and discussion about the tech and potential applications.
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https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmheadp...
Most of these are based on Microsoft's discontinued Soundscape app[2], which MS open sourced after its discontinuation.
[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voicevista/id6450388413 [2] https://github.com/microsoft/soundscape
It’s a known research technique called acoustic motion tracking (some labs use inaudible chirps to locate phones or headsets) you mentioned, but it’s not how airpods head tracking works
I don't think that's how this app works though, after installing it I got a permission prompt for motion tracking.
Looks like there is an API for this. Here's an example: https://github.com/tukuyo/AirPodsPro-Motion-Sampler/blob/8ac...
Since the author of the app mentioned reverse engineering, analyzing audio is a way that immediately came to mind. It should be quite precise, too, only at the expense of extra CPU cycles.
I did not imply that there is no API to get head tracking data (even though Google search overview straight up says that). It’s mostly a thought experiment. Kudos for digging up CMHeadphoneMotionManager.
Duh. The mechanism I described hinges on Apple being able to track head movements in the first place in order to convert that virtual 3D scene to stereo sound.
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion
"For example, a game might use accelerometer and gyroscope input to control onscreen game behavior."
The part specifically about obtaining headphone orientation is here (added in 2023):
https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmheadp...
At any rate you earned your upvotes today tanis. Keep at her!
1. one piece of technology fairly widely accessible at once
2. Technology MUST be physical (device etc.)
GenAI is certainly having its incredible moment now, but without a physical layer to connect people through it doesn’t have that same edge.
Compare with something as niche as Kinect - for the engineering crowd, at least in my experience, the excitement around it was maybe less intense (no promise of money), but more crystalline
Without being simple minded there might be fertility in, "can't we get the Kinect/WiiMote to control an AI?" Couldn't I swing my device around (giggidy) and have the AI analyze the movements to do something, "novel?" Food for thought. Thanks for commenting wellthisisgreat.
I’ve seen iPhone apps that use a neural net to determine the direction your head is facing using the camera. I think it networks with OpenTrack somehow, but I’m not sure about the details.
I wonder if you could use the AirPods to track your head and also direct audio from the PC through them with some networking!
I don’t know how to do Apple development but this world be a very cool application.
So that’s already taken care of :)
It’s so cool to see an interesting toy-like tech demo that does something new and different.
Thanks for your effort.
(Flying would be amazing.)
Can I ask about the tech stack - what did you use to build it. Just plain Swift and SceneKit? I did notice the app download is over 100MB, which seems a bit excessive for the game play.
But even though I can’t play it, great job on doing something new and creative.
Something that required slower reaction time might be more appropriate than a racing game.
Tried restarting the app, and disconnecting and reconnecting the Airpods with no luck.
Love the concept, though!