As crowded as the gaming rumor jungle is, there are a few species in there that manage to stand out from their respective herds. One such example is a recently-spotted post that tells of a Wiimote clone project for the Microsoft Xbox 360 called "Newton".

The post explains that the supposed controller project is named after physicist Sir Isaac Newton who came up with the three laws of motion. Word is that testing is going along well after the hiring of test engineers by Microsoft last January.

The technology, according to the Seattle pi blog, is based on LEDs and accelerometers. The Newton controller is said to be reliant on an LED sensor bar which attaches to the Xbox 360's USB ports. Specifically, it was pointed out that it is going to have an LED sensor on the front accelerometer and gyroscope sensor that can detect tilt and motion.

Additional features include rumble motors, wireless two way data communication with the 360, a built in Microphone for Xbox Live and voice-activated games. It was further speculated that the Xbox Play & Charge battery pack is going to fit on the bottom of the "Newton" controller.

Of course, all of this is still very debatable, and your guess is as good as ours as to how much truth there is in this one. Still, it's interesting to hear about these things once in a while. Perhaps Microsoft will also find a way to use this one for bomb disposal.