I like the hand/glove idea and heck it can even be done with tech we have today, eg this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0awjPUkBXOU

is using the Nintendo Wii's motion sensing remote to do all sorts of cool tricks with detecting motion in real space. There is no reason why you couldn't set up something similar for 3D use as well. It may not have as fine a control as a dedicated glove but i can easily see using this idea to do performance capture.