Another of my confessions about underestimating the impact of new technologies: when I first saw demonstrations of Nintendo’s motion-sensitive controllers at E3 2006, as well as trying them myself, I was not convinced they would be anything more than a novelty or even a gimmick. It makes great television to watch people moving their arms around in front of the TV screen, and sure enough the Wii trounced its rivals in terms of press coverage and attendee feedback. But it wasn’t clear then, as it is now, that motion sensitive control would become so widely accepted and established in the video games industry. The Wii’s success has clearly demonstrated that some TV users at least are happy to adopt new interface technologies. It clearly works for games: but will people use similar devices to control TV programme guides or other big screen applications? Research from Strategy Analytics’ Digital Home Observatory suggests that there is indeed a positive attitude towards motion-sensitive, point-and-click approaches for media browser applications. In a survey of 500 US consumers, TV viewers identified point and click controllers such as Nintendo’s Wii Remote as the best type of control device for the next generation of TV-based media browsers. We found that PC-style keyboards ran a close second in popularity, followed by traditional TV remote controls using either on-screen keyboards or alphanumeric keypads. Voice control, which has often been talked about as the future of man-machine interface, was considered the least appropriate option by those surveyed. Perhaps it’s just that people have not yet seen a successful implementation of voice technology. After the surprising success of point-and-click, I would not rule out voice control making a breakthrough at some, probably distant, point in the future. See also: Digital Experience at CES: Hillcrest Demos Kodak Media Player User Control and Interface Hillcrest sues Nintendo and wants Wii imports stopped Twitter: twitter.com/dmercer15 Complimentary Report: Digital Home Observatory: Pilot Study