Humans Gifted With Wings, Thanks to HTC and Wiimote Hack

On a regular basis, thousands of people are able to fly all over the world. While flight may not be physical human attribute, it’s possible thanks to extraordinary mechanical engineering and the airplane. Okay, so flying in a metal tube isn’t exactly the same as flapping one’s arms or sprouting feathers in order to fly, but one man is finding a way to make this a possibility, armed with a smartphone and controller.

Engineer Jarnos Smeets from The Netherlands is working on Human Birdwings, a project designed to create a set of mechanical wings for humanoids. So far, the wings look like a metal skeleton frame, equipped with a ton of different motors. While the overall project is taking time to complete, and contains a few intricate details, what is interesting is the acceleration sensors: Jarnos is relying on a Wiimote and HTC Wildfire S to help control flapping the wings. So far, so good, too.

As demonstarted in the video by Jarnos below, the combined efforts of the Android phone and Nintendo controller help the mechanical wings to mimic his arm movements. This is quite an arduous task for the devices and motors due to the fact flying doesn’t just involve up and down movement, but also a circular movement.

Pretty cool, right? While Human Birdwings is far from take off right now, it will be interesting to see how close Jarnos and friends get to reaching the goal of making people fly with wings–especially seeing how unsuccessful most human flying contraptions can be.

[Human Birdwings via Geekosystem]

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