Patent ID: 8390649

Claim:
An electronic device, comprising: a housing configured such that the electronic device is a handheld electronic device configured to be manually lifted, manually held and manually moved in three-dimensional space; a display screen on an exterior of the housing; an engage/disengage interface configured to selectively actuate and deactuate a motion-based input mode when the electronic device is powered on; an input translation module operatively associated with the engage/disengage interface, the input translation module configured to translate relative motion of the electronic device into motion-based input indicative of the relative motion that is input to an application executing on the electronic device when the engage/disengage interface is actuated, and the input translation module configured to ignore the relative motion of the electronic device when the engage/disengage interface is deactuated, the application causing image content to be displayed on a display screen of the electronic device; wherein the electronic device is configured to cause the display screen to display a graphical indication of the motion-based input, wherein upon initial actuation of the motion-based input mode, a point of reference is established, wherein the graphical indication of motion-based input has (1) a first characteristic, an orientation, indicating a first directional component of the motion-based input corresponding to a direction of movement of the electronic device during the motion-based input mode with respect to the point of reference and (2) a second characteristic indicating a second component of the motion-based input different than the first directional component, the second component of motion-based input corresponding to a magnitude of movement of the electronic device during a period of time extending from the initial actuation of the motion-based input mode to deactuation of the motion-based input mode.