Theft alarm. Not sure whether vibration will meet this need because I don't know how sensitive the thing will be to vibration. Of course, orientation change assumes the person doesn't deliberately hold the device at exactly the same orientation, but that seems unlikely. E.g., stick it in the pocket of a laptop case and it will alert you if it walks off. Assuming it is set to alert quickly enough.
Might also be useful to know if someone is fiddling with the device itself (e.g. I want to know that nobody in my household is playing with the twine and perhaps left it somewhere other than the basement floor where it should be sitting to act as a water detector)
I came here to suggest this, and was glad to see it already has been.
Besides what has been stated already... just in general it makes set up easier because you don't have to think about orientation before hand. I could go tape it to my mailbox door and tell it "when it changes in any direction" notify me. Instead of trying to visualize what the "open" orientation will be.
I would think you should do a general "on change" as a condition. Orientation with 1 rule instead of 6 to tell if someone/thing has messed with it would be A LOT simpler. Mainly I'd like the same for temp so I can track the temp of a room or device over the day/week.
I would support a "has changed from x to y" signal. My plan is to use the Twine as a way of signalling my son to check my house for, specifically sump pump failure and low temperature (furnace failure) while I am away for long Winter holidays (it's a condition for insurance in Canada that such checks happen). We could then have a signalling "code" such as, "from top to left" = checked it, no problem, "from top to right = fixed problem, ... you get the idea - with 5 possible orientations from "top" one could do a lot.
Ditto to detecting any change in orientation from the current state. Would love to use this to see when something has been knocked over... And when that happens twine can land in any position.
@Gerry M, it seems to me that depending on Twine for any kind of vital signal (like a flooded basement) is unwise. Twine is an experimentation toy, little more, at least in its current state of development.
Answers
Might also be useful to know if someone is fiddling with the device itself (e.g. I want to know that nobody in my household is playing with the twine and perhaps left it somewhere other than the basement floor where it should be sitting to act as a water detector)
Besides what has been stated already... just in general it makes set up easier because you don't have to think about orientation before hand. I could go tape it to my mailbox door and tell it "when it changes in any direction" notify me. Instead of trying to visualize what the "open" orientation will be.