REMEMBER the good old joystick? From touchscreens to the Kinect, how we play video games has changed dramatically in recent years. Now there is an even more exotic way of controlling games - a bowl of water.

Developed by Luc Geurts and Vero Vanden Abeele of the Leuven Engineering College, Belgium, the Splash Controller is a wooden bowl with electrodes covering its inner surface. Filling the bowl with water completes the circuit and activates the electrodes, allowing a computer to detect the presence of liquid and interpret a variety of gestures including swirling the bowl or splashing water into the air. With just 5 volts passing through the water there is no chance of electrocution.

So far Geurts has only created a simple pattern-recognition game for use with the controller, but he says it should soon be possible to control an on-screen character by sloshing water back and forth. Future possibilities include smart water-based toys for children or games designed to help people with motor disabilities by teaching them to manipulate the controller.