Steam Controller can play 16-bit audio through its haptic motors
The Steam Controller can now play recognizable music using only its haptic system. The project was shared a while, but we had not seen it until its author, Pixel1011, sent it directly to VideoCardz. It is a funny result for hardware that does not include a conventional speaker.
Raw audio through the haptics
Pixel1011 reverse-engineered the controller firmware and found HID commands that could stream raw audio bytes. The first implementation supported 8-bit audio at 8 kHz. The updated SteamHapticsPlayer now supports 16-bit audio at the same 8 kHz rate and sends the two main channels to the controller’s haptic actuators.
The latest demonstration uses “Want You Gone” from Portal 2 . The audio is limited, but the music and vocals are still recognizable. The controller can also sound louder when placed against a desk, since the surface carries more of the vibration.
The Wilhelm scream was the clue
We previously covered the Steam Controller’s hidden Wilhelm scream easter egg . That built-in sound suggested the haptic hardware could do more than play MIDI-style tones. Pixel1011 then investigated the firmware to check whether arbitrary audio playback was possible.
SteamHapticsPlayer is available on GitHub, and the author has also released Linux support. Pixel1011 warns that long-term safety is not guaranteed because the feature relies on HID commands that are not officially exposed to users. Still, it is now possible to make a controller play music without a speaker, which is not something we expected to write about.
Source: Reddit
