Handy Handy

The German word for cellphone is "handy." After a demonstration I recently saw, the name seems less silly. A Canadian company called Gesturetek has invented a technology that lets any cameraphone act like a joystick. That's right, your hand controls the movement of a cursor on the screen. The software, Eyemobile, compares successive views from the camera lens to judge the movement of your hand. That movement can propel a ball through a maze, as in its TiltaWorld demo, and more may come soon. It's like an old-fashioned handheld game, only electronic. Now that's handy. —Lauren Aaronson