Control your computer by whacking it

For awhile now people have been coming up with novel uses for the Sudden Motion Sensor, the accelerometer that hides inside Apple laptops, but this is the first one I've seen for a non-Apple laptop: knockAge is a Linux program for IBM and ThinkPads that lets you control your system by physically knocking on the side of it. It lets you record unique sequences of knocks and then configure specific commands for that knock. There's a video at YouTube showing knockAge being used to start the screensaver with one sequence of knocks and stop it with another, allowing the user to lock and unlock the computer using secret knocks. Of course, I'm not sure I'd want to use this for real security, but it's still pretty neat and might actually be useful. Of course, basically any laptop could be made to do this by substituting, say, the space bar for an accelerometer, but this is cooler.

[Via Miles Barr]

Tags: accelerometer, hack, ibm, knock, knockage, lenovo, linux, opensource, sms, suddenmotionsensor, whack