Students Build USB Controller for Angry Birds

Super Angry Birds is a force feedback USB controller for Angry Birds that simulates the feeling of a slingshot. The controller was created by Hideaki Matsui and

Andrew Spitz for a class at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design.

All the controls found in the game are available in this device. You can control the pull, the angle, and of course trigger the special power of the bird. We hacked a motorized fader found in audio mixing consoles to simulate the force you would feel when using a slingshot.

We programmed in Max/MSP and Arduino. For controlling the hardware, we used an Arduino-based microcontroller called Music & Motors developed by CIID.

This was part of the class on Haptics at CIID run by Bill Verplank and David Gauthier.

Take a look at the controller in action below...

[via Omar]