Nintendo plans to launch a game controller along with its Revolution games console that differs very radically from traditional design. The controller looks a little like a television remote control, and seemingly facilitates playing games with only one hand. The device does this by mixing buttons and motion sensors, so that one controls games by pressing buttons and waving the device in the air.
Simulations of the controller being used in a number of different games were shown during a video shown at the keynote. It was swung in a baseball game as someone would swing a bat, stabbed into space to kill imaginary bugs as someone might use a fly swatter and swung from side to side to control a tennis game on screen.
Driving this controller is a sensor which Nintendo calls the direct pointing device. This sensor allows Revolution to detect precisely the location on the screen that the controller is pointing, and can also detect the distance from the screen and even the angle of the controller.