Idk if this is a stupid idea or not (I'm still a noob) but if you wired a few more IR LEDs in parallel or series (I'm not sure which) onto the remote could you widen the IR signal rangea bit so you dont have to wait for a pause after tilting the remote?
Anyway great project! It would be great to see one of these on a robot, it would remind me of those robots that use the Wii Nunchuck's accelerometer hacks 