My new magic wand just came. It looks great. Looking at it, it looks like it is carved by hand from a solid piece of wood. It could easily serve as a prop in a Harry Potter film. But it is actually a high tech appliance.
A built-in accelerometer can detect how you are moving the wand. And it has a built-in vibrator so it can make a little tactile buzz to communicate to the user. It is a learning IR remote control. So, after training it, I can point it at the TV and it's like I have my fingers on a volume control. I turn it clockwise to increase the volume or counter clockwise to decrease the volume. Or I can flick it up to surf channels upwards or flick it down to surf channels downwards.
It can handle a few more gestures. But only a few. It won't be able to handle my entire home theatre setup. On the other hand I don't need to look at the wand to find a particular button. I'm pretty impressed with it so far. 