Patent ID: 7872638

Claim:
A motion determining apparatus for determining a motion of an input device including an acceleration sensor for detecting an acceleration in each of at least two axial directions, the motion determining apparatus comprising: a data obtaining unit for obtaining acceleration data which is output from the acceleration sensor; motion direction determination programmed logic circuitry for determining a motion direction of the input device with respect to a direction of an acceleration of gravity acting upon the input device, based on a shift of the acceleration data obtained by the data obtaining unit; and output programmed logic circuitry for outputting motion data including at least the motion direction determined by the motion direction determination programmed logic circuitry; wherein: the motion direction determination programmed logic circuitry includes circulation direction determination programmed logic circuitry for determining a circulation direction in which the acceleration data shifts in a time series manner around an origin of a two-dimensional coordinate system as a shifting axis, wherein coordinate axes of the two-dimensional coordinate system are defined based on components of the two axial directions of the acceleration data and the origin represents a value of the acceleration data in the state where no acceleration including the acceleration of gravity acts upon the acceleration sensor; the motion direction determination programmed logic circuitry determines a moving direction of the input device based on the circulation direction determined by the circulation direction determination programmed logic circuitry; and the output programmed logic circuitry outputs the motion data including at least the moving direction determined by the motion direction determination programmed logic circuitry.