The iMpulse is one of those cool pieces of technology that serves multiple purposes. The less things we carry around the better, and this Bluetooth gaming controller has that design philosophy in mind. Besides controlling hundreds of mobile games, it also serves as a key finder and media controller.
The primary function of this device is to control video games via Bluetooth. It is smaller than most of its competitors, but it also lacks some of the buttons of controllers like the iControlPad 2. It has four face buttons, one extra middle button and a joystick. Even though it does not have as many options in terms of functionality, it is not a bad trade-off when you consider that the iMpulse is small enough to carry around on your keychain.
You can connect multiple iMpulse controllers to one device, which opens options for playing multiplayer games on the go.
Besides playing games, this device can also help you find your keys, provided you have it attached to them. Obviously, you will need to be in Bluetooth range for this to work, but as long as you misplaced your keys somewhere in your general vicinity, this could prove to be quite a useful feature.
The creators are also touting the iMpulse as a mobile media controller, which is nice for tablet users who are not sitting right in front of their device. The face buttons are used for searching forward, backwards, play/pause and mute. The joystick is used for raising and lowering the volume.
The developers decided to use Bluetooth 2.1 instead of one of the newer versions because they wanted as many devices as possible to be able to use the iMpulse. This means that even individuals with older Android and Apple devices can still play their favorite games with real, physical buttons.
Finally, the device can also serve as a camera remote. Now we can see better quality self-shots all over Instagram. Awesome.
The creators are currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. You can reserve your own iMpulse controller with a pledge of US$30. They expect to ship the devices to backers in February, provided they meet their $50,000 goal by November 4.
The Kickstarter video below offers more information on the device.
Source: Kickstarter
