(Image credit: YouTube / Very Lazy Pixels)
A developer has created a Chromium browser-based tool that turns Valve's second-gen Steam Controller into a self-propelled RC car, steering it across a flat surface in real-time with no app or driver installed. The page connects to the controller over WebHID, a browser standard for talking directly to USB and Bluetooth devices, and moves it by pulsing the gamepad's rumble motors. The Steam Controller first went on sale for $99 in early May and promptly sold out.The tool utilizes the controller’s rumble motors, which, at the right frequency, cause the entire chassis to vibrate and creep across the surface in a chosen direction. The browser handles “steering” by varying the pulses sent to each gamepad stick, so leaning the output toward one motor turns the controller as it crawls. It’s the same type of vibration-driven locomotion that powers cheap “bristlebot” toys.As for connecting to the Steam Controller, WebHID grants low-level hardware access from the webpage once the user approves the controller via the browser’s device picker, so the entire setup runs inside a single tab with nothing to download. WebHID is only supported in Chromium browsers, such as Chrome and Edge, and not Safari or Firefox.
