Remote Controlled Car Controlled By Kinect Or iPad

I really like remote controlled cars, they are lots of fun. I know a lot of other geeks do too. I particularly like it when other people take a RC car and hack them to use controls they were never meant to have. A new RC car control hack has surfaced that uses one of two control methods.

The car can be controlled using a Kinect or it can be controlled using an iPad. The guy behind the hack used a custom-built HTML 5 app for his iPad that allows him to steer the car using the tilt sensor on the iPad. The app also uses the tilt sensors to activate the motor for forward or back.

The other method uses the Kinect and hand gestures that are mapped to virtual spaces the iPad uses. Both methods use an Arduino board to control the car with the controls wired to some opto-isolators. That Arduino controller is connected to a computer and the car waits for the app on the iPad or the Kinect waits to send input. Check out the video to see it in action.