AppMotion Turns iPhone & iPod Touch Into Motion Controllers for iPad

Polish startup Appvetica wants to turn the iPhone and iPod touch into motion controllers for iPad games.

According to The Next Web, Appvetica created a way to use multiple iPhones or iPod touches as Wii-like controllers for the iPad. The tech uses an app called AppMotion. The developer’s apps use the gyroscope and motion sensors in the smaller iOS devices to control action on the iPad instead of simple taps, swipes, and gestures.

To use AppMotion developers need to get an SDK from the startup. Developers drop the SDK into Xcode where they can make it work with their games. The SDK is in private beta, but developers that want to use it can sign up here to get in.

After games have implemented AppMotion, users need to download the AppMotion iPhone/iPod touch app to control the game. The controller app does have a few buttons, but is mainly meant for motion control. To set up the controller, simply start the game on the iPad, then launch the controller app on your iPhone or iPod touch. The app will search for available games, players choose their game from a list, then start playing.

There’s  only one app that supports AppMotion on the iPad: Retro Game Pack. The app includes two games, a Space Invaders-like game and a Pong-like game. Both games use motion control and the Space Invaders game uses the volume up button on the iPhone or iPod touch to shoot.

AppMotion seems like a fun way to play some iPad games, but part of it seems like a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist. Tilting the iPad works well enough for single-player games, and gestures work well for multiplayer games. It also just seems silly to imagine using the iPad for multiplayer games with the iPad acting as a glorified TV. Why not just buy a Wii and play multiplayer motion-control games that way?