Just as far as capturing the gesture of a shake is concerned, Kassen,
a 3-axis accelerometer might serve you well also. Is that what
detects tilt in your joypad? i seem to recall that the accelerometers
in those joypads aren't the greatest. if shaking is important, you
might try a better accelerometer.
Yes, I agree. The thing is; a wii controller wouldn't do for this because I want to use it two handed and need quite a few buttons. I stopped by almost every game and computer store in the city and most looked at me like I should've known they would never stock anything like a tilt/acceleration sensing joypad for PC so in the end I picked the only PS2 one I could find to use with a converter. I think the reports on the PS3 one's drivers are still a bit too scetchy. This one only has two axis and the quality is fairly low but workable with the interpolation I posted about earlier. I'll upgrade if I stick to this idea and something better comes along, maybe a hybrid of a ready made joypad and quality sensors. I also play games so a few controllers more isn't a big deal to me. :¬)
I'm not yet sure if shaking is "important to me" but I suspect so; most people seem to want to go in that direction and that's always a good sign. If PLORK with their Wii controllers isn't yet doing this somebody there might want to try.
Also, you're right to try them out on your friends (or anyone on the
street for that matter). Especially where interfaces are concerned,
people coming from a completely different place will tell you more
about your interface object just by using it that you could ever tell
yourself by testing it yourself.
Oh, yes! The ones that are into electronic music but don't make it themselves are best, I find. They aren't looking for conventions. It's also a lot of fun for them and me. It's best when they point at the controller and ask where to get one while completely forgetting that it's the laptop where the sound comes from, that always means I'm on the right track, I feel.
Do you have any video of this yet? I'd love to see it in action.
Of this? No, not yet but I'll try to get one (I don't have a video camera or capable mobile phone myself). I have to tune this one some more before I'd film it as well because it's really quite rough at the moment, not even ready to set loose on friends yet, but I liked the idea and how it came about so much that I just had to share. Getting "shake" in adition to the other parameters and uses you can get from motion sensors is quite exciting to me, at the moment.