Apple’s iPad has the ability to support a wide range of apps and functions using just a home button and touchscreen technology. You don’t need a toolbar for the apps but it does pose a problem for app developers that require a toolbar for their apps to work to their full extent. This is where the iPad’s camera comes in.
Developers at Astro faced the same problem when they were working on their new app, Luna Display. The app is designed to let your iPad become a wireless second touch screen display using a small dongle. The developers wanted the users to be able to pull up the screen setting within the Luna app and didn’t want to add extra UI. As the iPad did not offer any other surface to utilize, they turned to the iPad’s camera.
You can see how it works in the video:
The team from Astro hacked the iPad’s camera and made it into an extra button. The tools menu appears on simple tapping the camera lens. A second tap makes it disappear. Astro HQ cofounder Giovanni Donelli describes how the idea came to them like a bolt of lightning, “I had been staring at a white bezel iPad for so long, and I kept wishing there was another home button we could use. My eyes kept falling on the camera, and I really wanted to touch it!”
Here is what the founders had to say on Kickstarter:
