[HN Gopher] I built and launched the first AirPods-Controlled Game
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I built and launched the first AirPods-Controlled Game
Author : tanis46
Score : 200 points
Date : 2025-09-24 16:09 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (apps.apple.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (apps.apple.com)
| tanis46 wrote:
| A few weeks ago, while listening to music and developing an app
| with my AirPods, I noticed their spatial audio feature. I thought
| about what else could be done with reverse engineering, including
| the possibility of using AirPods as a motion controller. I built
| the world's first AirPods-controlled game, which uses a motor
| driven by head movements. In fact, it's not just AirPods, it's a
| game that uses a headset as a motion controller. And today, it
| was approved on the App Store. Who knows, maybe AirPods Arcade
| has even started? :)
| nxpnsv wrote:
| Fun idea!
| krackers wrote:
| This is an amazing idea! Even more surprising is the fact that
| apple approved it, usually they're not a fan of features being
| abused in ways they weren't intended for...
| jkestner wrote:
| We made a cooking thermometer that plugged into the iPhone's
| headphone jack before Bluetooth LE took off. Did not run into
| trouble with the app review team.
| liqilin1567 wrote:
| Very curious how you get the motion data from AirPods.I read
| the app description and noticed that no modification to AirPods
| is needed
| argsnd wrote:
| Apple has public developer-accessible Core Motion APIs for
| this
|
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmheadp.
| ..
| whirlwin wrote:
| Can one also use AirPods for e.g. Google Maps navigation?
| miki123211 wrote:
| Theoretically yes. There are apps for the blind that do
| this[1]; you set a "beacon" at the location you want to
| navigate to, and the apps use head tracking and 3d (HRTF) audio
| to show you which direction the beacon is in.
|
| Most of these are based on Microsoft's discontinued Soundscape
| app[2], which MS open sourced after its discontinuation.
|
| [1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/voicevista/id6450388413 [2]
| https://github.com/microsoft/soundscape
| quitit wrote:
| I love this! It's so reminiscent of the way we all would swerve
| our bodies when playing these types of games as a kid.
|
| (Flying would be amazing.)
| QRe wrote:
| First off, kudos and congrats on the launch, seems like a fun
| idea! I am curious, as you mentioned reverse engineering. How
| difficult was it to retrieve the raw gyroscope data from the
| AirPods - AFAIK there is no API to access this information,
| right?
| anileated wrote:
| Put a sine wave emitter (or multiple) on the scene. Enable head
| tracking. Analyze stereo sound at the output. Mute output.
| There you go: you now can track user's head without direct
| access to gyroscope data.
| echoangle wrote:
| Is it possible for an app to access the actual output played
| by the AirPods after 3D audio is applied?
| fiq100 wrote:
| Apple does not secretly analyze sine waves to infer head
| motion. Instead, airpods pro/max/gen-3 include actual IMUs
| (inertial measurement units), and ios exposes their readings
| through core motion.
|
| It's a known research technique called acoustic motion
| tracking (some labs use inaudible chirps to locate phones or
| headsets) you mentioned, but it's not how airpods head
| tracking works
| graypegg wrote:
| I think they're more so talking about measuring attenuation
| that apple applies for the "spatial audio" effect (after
| apple does all of the fancy IMU tracking for you), by using
| a known amplitude of signal in, and the ability to
| programmatically monitor the signal out after the effect,
| you can reverse engineer a crude estimated angle out of the
| delta between the two.
|
| I don't think that's how this app works though, after
| installing it I got a permission prompt for motion
| tracking.
|
| Looks like there is an API for this. Here's an example:
| https://github.com/tukuyo/AirPodsPro-Motion-
| Sampler/blob/8ac...
| quitit wrote:
| If you're looking to develop based on raw or processed
| gyroscope data then Core Motion is helpful
|
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion
|
| "For example, a game might use accelerometer and gyroscope
| input to control onscreen game behavior."
|
| The part specifically about obtaining headphone orientation is
| here (added in 2023):
|
| https://developer.apple.com/documentation/coremotion/cmheadp...
| stevage wrote:
| Amazing that it has taken this long for someone to do this.
| legostormtroopr wrote:
| This is so dumb - I love it. So much of modern computing is
| monetised and sanitised.
|
| It's so cool to see an interesting toy-like tech demo that does
| something new and different.
| sgt wrote:
| Love it - quite a unique idea!
|
| Can I ask about the tech stack - what did you use to build it.
| Just plain Swift and SceneKit? I did notice the app download is
| over 100MB, which seems a bit excessive for the game play.
| JFuzz wrote:
| I see that global leaderboard... over 6000 This is great! Gives
| me old school arcade vibes and obviously need for speed.
| danielfalbo wrote:
| This is amazing! I'm about to waste my entire afternoon playing
| this. Feature request: nod to restart
| danielfalbo wrote:
| Reminds me of when the first iPhones came out and developers were
| very creative for the time with the available features:
| flashlight app, bubble level app, asphalt 4
| freequest wrote:
| This is the kind of creative out of the box thinking, official
| technology is lacking right now. Many times we don't need new
| technologies, what we need are new ways to use what we have right
| now.
|
| Thanks for your effort.
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| Fantastic! It makes me a bit carsick. TBF, I am ~getting~ old.
| Hnrobert42 wrote:
| Also, I am often rear ending red cars. It dawned on me it's
| probably because I'm red-green colorblind and I can hardly see
| them on the horizon.
| parsimo2010 wrote:
| I don't have the latest AirPods so I haven't downloaded it, but
| I'll put in a feature request to enable the iPhone to be used as
| a tilt controller. It doesn't have to change the marketing that
| AirPods are the intended controller.
|
| But even though I can't play it, great job on doing something new
| and creative.
| zooweemama wrote:
| Really cool! Small complaint, the "near miss" text obstructs the
| view at least when playing in landscape. But great idea and
| execution!
| beng-nl wrote:
| Great gameplay, well done. It is correctly telling me I should
| not ride a motorcycle ;-)
| random_duck wrote:
| What a cool project! I wish I was the one too have thought of
| this. :)
| AfterHIA wrote:
| This reminds me of that ripe beautiful period after the iPhone
| was released when the all the apps were these weird idiosyncratic
| almost, "game like" offerings that weren't tied to platforms that
| either just brought amusement to a user or solved a simple
| problem. They were often free or cost .99 cents to 1.99$ and
| there were no subscriptions.
|
| At any rate you earned your upvotes today tanis. Keep at her!
| wellthisisgreat wrote:
| Yeah it was really a magical moment. I think the recipe for
| such moments is:
|
| 1. one piece of technology fairly widely accessible at once
|
| 2. Technology MUST be physical (device etc.)
|
| GenAI is certainly having its incredible moment now, but
| without a physical layer to connect people through it doesn't
| have that same edge.
|
| Compare with something as niche as Kinect - for the engineering
| crowd, at least in my experience, the excitement around it was
| maybe less intense (no promise of money), but more crystalline
| anonbuddy wrote:
| so it can read left and right motion, can it do other directions
| as well?
| wslh wrote:
| Since I don't have AirPods I found this funny video using the
| game: <https://youtu.be/sr-dsSWsMfE?si=9UlqjNw8_HJhtZ04>
| _petronius wrote:
| On my iPhone 16 Pro + Airpods Pro, when I start the game (tapping
| on the screen when it says "Tap to start") I get a message saying
| "Airpods Disconnected", even though the Control Center on the
| phone reports them as connected).
|
| Tried restarting the app, and disconnecting and reconnecting the
| Airpods with no luck.
|
| Love the concept, though!
| appreciatorBus wrote:
| Neat concept, tho tbh after about 2 minutes of playing I could
| tell it would lead to neck pain, so it was an instant delete for
| me.
|
| Something that required slower reaction time might be more
| appropriate than a racing game.
| ok_dad wrote:
| Okay so there is something called TrackIR and it has an open
| source implementation called OpenTrack. It's used for simulators
| like flight or driving sims.
|
| I've seen iPhone apps that use a neural net to determine the
| direction your head is facing using the camera. I think it
| networks with OpenTrack somehow, but I'm not sure about the
| details.
|
| I wonder if you could use the AirPods to track your head and also
| direct audio from the PC through them with some networking!
|
| I don't know how to do Apple development but this world be a very
| cool application.
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