Quantum mechanics might have the solution to joystick drift
1 min read
Summary
Nintendo Switch joysticks are facing an issue called “drift”, which causes unintended actions in a game even when no one is touching a controller, and this problem affects Sony, Microsoft and third-party accessory makers as well.
Two potential solutions that have been proposed are Hall effect sensors and tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) sensors.
Hall effect replaces resistive strips and wipers with magnets and sensors that never make contact, whilst TMR relies on the quantum mechanical phenomenon of tunneling through insulating materials.
TMR is more sensitive and linear than existing Hall effect sensors, and is already in use in hard drives.
TMR sensors are more expensive than Hall effect sensors and are not widely used in gaming hardware yet as potentiometer-based joysticks are cheaper to manufacture, but this could change as the cost difference is expected to decrease as the technology matures.
Some third-party manufacturers are already selling gamepads with TMR joysticks, including PB Tails, GameSir and 8BitDo.