Comments on: Motion sensing comes to mobile phones

The technology made popular by Nintendo's Wii game controller is adding new utility--and excitement--to the cell phone.
Photos: Motion-sensing phones

[witib03]

Not the first....

Hate to break the news, but the Samsung A940 from Sprint had this motion sensing feature over one year ago. Nothing too new.

[achiodi]

Help with the Handicapped

As a physician, I wonder how these advances might make a device more functional or easier to use for the handicapped, say someone with cerebral palsy or Parkinsonism who might have a hand tremor?

[allknowing777]

Gyros are too costly and inefficient

The notion that gyroscopes will one day be adopted by cell phone users is an exercise in delusion. Accelerometers and magnetometers are more than enough to accomplish all motion sensing requirements for cell phones. MEMS gyroscopes have way too much drift to make them practical for GPS or gaming. MEMS gyroscopes are also significantly more expensive than accelerometers. So that makes them highly impractical for mass market consumer applications. At best, they will remain being used in digital still cameras ... but even there, there is too much price pressure to keep on using them.