Whether or not you grew up wanting the Nintendo Power Glove doesn’t matter. Now anyone can make their own—or at least something similar—with this awesome creation by maker Hriday Badot. Using a Raspberry Pi Pico with an MPU-6050 accelerometer module, he was able to steer and drive a car in the racing game Asphalt 8.
To accelerate, Badot tilts his hand forward. Steering left and right is as easy as leaning your hand to the sides. The motions are intuitive for driving but could easily be adapted to control other types of games, as well.
Everything was programmed using CircuitPython. The MPU-6050 module is connected to the Raspberry Pi Pico which feeds gyroscope and acceleration data in real-time. The Pico interprets this information into controller input signals.
The best Raspberry Pi projects are the ones that keep giving! According to Badot, there are plans in the works to upgrade the project with new features and adapt it for other platforms, including virtual reality systems.
If you want to recreate this project yourself, check out this post on Badot’s blog for a full parts list, instructions, code and more.