EyeMobile Engine: Wii-like gesture control for phones

Now you can tilt, shake, and roll your phone to control your mobile games and apps—and nope, you don't need new hardware to make it work, just a phone with a camera.

The all-software EyeMobile Engine has been percolating for awhile now, but this was my first chance to try it in person—and it's a pretty clever idea, essentially capable of adding gesture control (kind of like the Wii or the iPhone) to just about any camera phone.

Here's how it works: The software uses your phone's camera to detect movement, and EyeMobile-enhanced mobile apps then translate your gestures into action.

Case in point: an image viewer designed for Windows Mobile. I pulled up a map of the New York Subway and pressed a key; then, when I tilted the handset up and back, the image zoomed in and out. Next, I pressed another key and started rolling the phone around, which made the map scroll up, down, left, right...however I wanted.

Next, we tried a snowboarding game (pictured), in which you avoid moguls by turning the phone left and right—it all worked pretty nicely, until the poor boarder wiped out. After that came a game where you try to keep a marble from rolling off the screen, which turned out to be a lot more realistic (and frustrating) than I thought.

Other EyeMobile Engine apps coming up include a Web browser (just roll and tilt to scroll around and zoom in on a page) and a gesture-enabled GPS mapping app—nice.

GestureTek (the maker of EyeMobile Engine) has released a development kit for Windows Mobile, Symbian Series 60/UIQ, BREW, and "some" Java handsets, and if you're a Verizon Wireless, Alltel, or Cellular South subscriber, you can download some EyeMobile-enabled games (such as "Camera Phone Darts" and "3D Tilt-a-World") over your phone.

Related:
Press release