Patent ID: 7889179

Claim:
A device for controlling movement of an object relative to an environment, the device comprising: a ball including data or representations of the data, the data or the representations of the data being distributed at least one of a spherical layer of the ball and an outer spherical surface of the ball, the data or the representations of the data being configured for determining at least a movement direction of the object relative to the environment, the data pertaining to a plurality of movement directions of the object, wherein rotation of the ball controls at least a movement direction change of the object without causing translation of the object; a first sensor for reading at least a portion of the data or at least a portion of the representations of the data from the at least one of the spherical layer of the ball and the outer spherical surface of the ball; and an alignment mechanism configured to rotate the ball to cause an axis of the object to be parallel to an X, Y, or Z-axis of a reference coordinate system.