Here’s something you’d probably like to try right away, but likely can’t because it’s really too geeky to understand: a group of hackers and developers known as “pandaelf” managed to stream PlayStation 3 games to the iPhone and iPad on a local network using a series of USB devices attached to the PS3, and an “interpreter” to send iOS gestures back to the console. Somehow, it’s working.

Here’s what they did: they connected a USB mouse and keyboard to the PS3 as input controls, and another “third party capture device” that streams video to a PC running a build of “everyAir”, a remote desktop controller. everyAir really handles everything, from iOS to PC communication to live video streaming from the TV and PS3 to the iPhone and iPad. It’s one hell of a setup but as you can see from the demo video below, it seems to be working.

Video and Q&A below. Somebody please find a way to play Game Cube games on the iPad now, and I’m sold. [via iThinkDifferent]

Q: What’s the overall picture for how this works?
A: The trick is to connect a capture device and a USB mouse/keyboard device to the PS3. The capture device sends video data to the PC, and the USB keyboard/mouse sends the button presses. On the PC itself, you run a custom build of everyAir which understands custom gestures and pipes the input to the PC which then sends it to the PS3 via the input interpreter.

Q: What were some of the hurdles?
A: There are two problems to solve: sending the video signal to the iOS device and sending back input from the iOS device. Sending the video signal is solved by using an off the shelf capture device, and then sending back the input is a combination of a custom build of everyAir with an off the shelf mouse/keyboard device that connects to the PS3.

Q: How do you send input to the PS3?
A: Using one of those USB Keyboard/Mouse devices. For example, Eagle Eye (search for it on Amazon).

Q: How do you get the video signal from the PS3 to the iOS device?
A: We do this by using an off the shelf capture device. The capture device connects to the PC, TV, and to the PS3. The result is that a livestream of the PS3’s video signal ends up on the PC.

Q: How do you connect to the PC from the iOS device?
A: Using everyAir - our remote desktop application.

Q: How does everyAir understand the game gestures?
A: We’re using a custom build of everyAir, and it’s hardcoded to understand these gestures. Additionally, it knows how to pipe input to the mouse/kb device in a way that it expects.

Q: Will this be publicly available?
A: We plan to release a fully customizable version at some point in the future.