Manufacturers are increasingly embedding accelerometers and other sensors into their gadgets, according to an article in today's New York Times, allowing them to respond to movement without waiting for us to push a button. Game designers and other programmers are jumping to remake user interfaces so that users can direct gadgets with a nudge, a tilt or a shake.

It's the Wii but in something you already own/use for another purpose, like your mobile phone.

Some of the applications are silly. The programmer Graham Oldfield turned his Nokia N95 cellphone into a virtual light saber by writing software that tracked the phone’s movement using the built-in accelerometer.

(Actually, I think that's pretty cool -- if you think so, too, are are gadget-ready, you can download the software for free here. BTW, that's the 1956 Zenith "Flash-matic" Remote Control -- "the granddaddy of the 'clickers'" from TVHistory.tv.