1. A computer-implemented process for controlling a user-selected electronic component within an environment using a pointing device, comprising: a waiting step for waiting for an orientation message to be received; a receiving step for receiving orientation messages transmitted by the pointing device, said orientation messages comprising at least one orientation sensor reading generated by at least one orientation sensor of the pointing device; a switch state determining step for determining whether a switch state indicates that a pointing device switch has been activated by the user to indicate that a gesture is being performed, said switch state determining step being executed whenever an orientation message is received; a repeating step for repeating the waiting step, the receiving step, and the switch state determining step whenever it is determined that the switch state does not indicate that the pointing device switch is activated; a recording step for recording a prescribed one or ones of the pointing device sensor outputs taken from the orientation message received, in accordance with a determination that the switch state indicates that the pointing device switch is activated; a determining step for determining whether a threshold if just one, or all the thresholds if more than one, of a gesture threshold definition under consideration are exceeded by the recorded sensor output associated with the same sensor output as the threshold for the gesture threshold definition assigned to the selected electronic component; a designating step for designating that the user has performed the gesture associated with the gesture threshold definition whenever it is determined that the threshold if just one, or all the thresholds if more than one, of the gesture threshold definition are exceeded by the recorded sensor output associated with the same sensor output; and an implementing step for implementing the control action represented by the gesture that the user was designated to have performed.