Researchers at BT have announced the development of a USB form factor, accelerometer based system for controlling laptops and tablet PCs. The BT Balance system has been developed by BT’s research group, including interface experts within the company’s “age and disablility”.

The accelerometer enables simple movements of the device to control menus and applications. According to Adam Oliver, head of the age and disability research group:

“The technology has obvious implications for those who are disabled or elderly and have difficulty using a fiddly laptop keyboard or mouse. “We also wanted to create an interface that was simple and intuitive. Standard ways of controlling PC applications can be too complicated, so we decided to use the analogy of a book to work with. What we ended up with gives you the same look and feel of picking up a book and reading it but in a 3-D digital format.”

More on this when have a chance to talk directly with BT.

You can read BT’s press release here.

We missed this when first posted, but it’s still interesting and relevant. CNET has a slide show of 7 different mobile phones that incorporate motion-sensing applications. The iPhone is, of course, prominent, but so are phones that use motion sensing for for gaming, for interface to the phone’s apps and even as a pedometer for folks who want to track their mileage.

You can find the slideshow here.

Playstation Universe has a piece up about a purported Sony Playstation/PSP controller that uses 3D motion-sensing gloves controllers.

These gloves will supposedly track both gestures/movements and the position of the user’s hands in space. Might be a very interesting competitor to the Wiimote, should they come to pass.

Read the article here.

Update: Perhaps this is a variant of the “Gripmote” we had written about earlier, and which is also mentioned in this recent piece? If you’ve got some insight, please let us know!

The folks at IC Insights recently released a report on the market growth in the MEMS space. They found that overall, the MEMS market is growing twice as fast as the overall IC marketplace. In particular, the market for sensors and actuators is driving this growth.

IC Insights feels that the sensor segment (accelerometers and gyroscopic devices) will dominate over time — and showing the importance of consumer motion-enabled apps, they believe that by the end of the decade the bulk of sensor sales will move from the automotive market (which dominates today) to consumer applications.

Via EETimes.

Nintendo and Opera today released the final version of the Wii’s Web browser. Nothing earth shattering here, but just another example of Nintendo’s groundbreaking in the motion controlled apps space.

Via gamesindustry.biz

According to CNET’s Tom Krazit, HP is working on a new gaming platform that combines handheld/mobile devices with GPS and motion sensing to create a new kind of immersive game play. In his blog, Krazit talks about HP Labs’ efforts in the “mscape” (or Mediascape) realm. This research program is designed to provide an immersive and ubiquitous “Internet” platform that combines the network with real world cues and contexts — including things like location, direction of movement and other “cues” (perhaps based on local sensors or other data sources).

The article talks about this technology in terms of a prototype gaming platform, but HP evidently has a broader set of uses in mind (examples include “discovery tours” , museum usage, and more).

Read the whole post here.