{"id":103337,"date":"2014-06-02T11:17:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-02T09:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=103337"},"modified":"2014-06-02T11:18:51","modified_gmt":"2014-06-02T09:18:51","slug":"umotio-sa-made-motion-controller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/103337-umotio-sa-made-motion-controller.html","title":{"rendered":"uMotio: SA-made motion controller"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Johannesburg-based Ignatius Havemann and Tom van den Bon have listed their passion-project, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indiegogo.com\/projects\/umotio-arduino-compatible-3d-gesture-controller\" target=\"_blank\">uMotio motion controller<\/a>, on crowdfunding website Indiegogo.<\/p>\n<p>Like other motion controllers already on the market, the uMotio lets you interact with your PC using hand and finger gestures.<\/p>\n<p>Unlike commercially available offerings such as the Leap Motion, uMotio supports a whole host of other platforms, including hobbyist favourites such as Arduino and the Raspberry Pi.<\/p>\n<p>At $65 for the wired \u201cuMotio White\u201d unit, it also comes in quite a bit cheaper than most others.<\/p>\n<p>It is also completely open, making it well-suited for the DIY projects of other hackers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSchematics, layouts and software will be released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. This will be available on GitHub after the campaign ends successfully. Designs and software library will be available when finalized,\u201d the pair say on their Indiegogo campaign page.<\/p>\n<p>This won\u2019t detract from the device\u2019s usability though, as the pair say the uMotio will work straight out of the box with no technical experience required.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WA4TGDb1Fyg\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Technical details<\/h3>\n<p>The uMotio works by transmitting frequencies in the range of 70 to 130 kilohertz (kHz).<\/p>\n<p>This results in a \u201cquasi-static electrical near field that can be used for sensing conductive objects such as the human body.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Because of the low frequencies and frequency hopping techniques used, the two say that no interference will disturb the controller.<\/p>\n<p>Even placing a phone on the controller while it\u2019s ringing hasn\u2019t interfered with the uMotio\u2019s sensor.<\/p>\n<p>For the 3D tracking and gesture sensing, the uMotio uses Microchip\u2019s 32-bit MGC3130 GestIC technology, which Havemann and Van den Bon say gives it a 0 to 15cm detection range with a resolution of up to 150 dots per inch.<\/p>\n<p>An Atmel ATmega32U4 8-bit AVR microcontroller operating at 3.3V is used for the external interface and the pair have promised to load the AVR with an Arduino-compatible bootloader.<\/p>\n<p>The reason for the Indiegogo campaign, the two have said, is because the most cost effective way of building more uMotios, is to do it in bulk.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur crowd funding campaign is a way for us to gauge the interest and to get the capital to do our first production run,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMoney funded from this campaign will be used for setup costs, certifications, and the initial production run of uMotio units.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the time of publication there were only a few days left on uMotio\u2019s Indiegogo campaign, so if you\u2019re interested, the time to pledge is now.<\/p>\n<h3 id=\"related\">More gadget news<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/general\/99208-great-south-african-inventions.html\"><strong>Great South African inventions<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/gadgets\/96855-meet-the-robobeast-from-south-africa.html\"><strong>Meet the RoboBEAST from South Africa<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/quick-news\/67834-asus-leap-motion-partner-for-pc-motion-tracking.html\"><strong>Asus, Leap Motion partner for PC motion tracking<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/general\/93579-high-accuracy-through-wall-3-d-motion-tracking.html\"><strong>High-accuracy, through-wall, 3-D motion tracking<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wireless\/79551-wisee-controlling-your-home-using-wifi-and-gestures.html\"><strong>WiSee: Controlling your home using WiFi and gestures<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A local startup is crowdsourcing funding to produce its maker-friendly motion controller<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":103339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[35,16854,25249,25251,25247],"class_list":["post-103337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets","tag-headline","tag-house4hack","tag-ignatius-havemann","tag-tom-van-den-bon","tag-umotio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103337"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103403,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103337\/revisions\/103403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}