Myself and Mr. Jordan were talking about this the other day, and I thought I’d share it with the rest of you.

Recent versions (2005-onwards I think) of Apple’s PowerBooks and iBooks come with with “Sudden Motion Sensor” technology, which helps to prevent disk failures if the computer is dropped. When dropped, the computor will instantly park the hard drive heads to help reduce the risk of damage to the hard drive on impact. The motion sensor can also be used to determine the angle at which the PowerBook is tilted at in any direction, along with the velocity at which the computer is being moved.

With this in mind, hackers around the world wasted little time dreaming up unconventional uses. In March 2005, Wired published an article showing how hackers have utilised the Sudden Motion Sensor to do everything from “realigning an image in a window so it always points up, no matter what angle you hold the laptop at”, to producing innovative games such as Bubblegym.

Move forward a year and a bit, and more and more interesting motion sensor hacks have cropped up. For example, SmackBook Pro allows users to switch virtual desktops in the style of Minority Report. iAlertU allows owners to ‘Lock Down’ their Macs when unattended, and personal favourite MacSaber, allows you to turn your Mac into the coolest weapon in the galaxy. Well, kind of.

Of course, all this begs the question: Will motion sensor interaction make it to the mainstream, allowing for a new era in UI experience? The idea is already around, with the Nintendo DS allowing you to interact with Electroplankton and stitch wounds with your stylus, but beyond gaming…imagine smacking your computer upside the head everytime it crashes actually HELPING…wouldn’t it be glorious?