Quantum mechanics might have the solution to joystick drift

is a senior reporter who’s been covering and reviewing the latest gadgets and tech since 2011, but has loved all things electronic since he was a kid. The Nintendo Switch may be remembered as much for repopularizing portable gaming as it will for a hardware issue that affected millions of gamers: joystick drift. Drifting is the most common term for an issue where joysticks detect false inputs — even when no one is touching a controller — causing unwanted movements to happen in a game. The issue also affects controllers from Sony, Microsoft, and third-party accessory makers. Hall effect sensors emerged a few years ago as a potential solution to the problem, but there’s an even better option out there that’s easier to retrofit into existing controller designs. That solution is tunneling magnetoresistance, or TMR, a technology that revolutionized hard drives two decades ago using quantum mechanics and magnets. Like Hall effect sensors, TMR sensors avoid the fundamental problem with mo ... Read full article.