This is the "Bar of Soap", a project from MITers Brandon Taylor and Michael Bove. Its job is to predict what you want to do with it. Using an accelerometer and capacitive sensors, the Bar detects movement and orientation to guess which function you expect: Camera, games, phone, remote control or "palm" (we assume that means PDA). The device was calibrated in a very simple way: The researchers called each function to volunteers who then, say, held it to their eye for "Camera". The sensor data was then matched up.
Currently at v3, the Bar of Soap won't actually do anything other than guessing, but the tech could find its way into real devices soon enough. The accuracy will need to be high, though, otherwise frustration will quickly become the sixth function. Taylor and Bove claim it makes correct predictions 95% of the time.
Project page [MIT via BBGadgets]
