The LIS3DH Breakout is a smart, low-power, three-axis, capacitive micro-machined accelerometer with 12 bits of resolution that you can use to add translation detection to your project. It would be classified as a 3DoF, or 3 Degrees of Freedom. Inertial Measurement Units(or IMUs)can provide additional space location data, such as gyroscopic or magnetometric. The LIS3DH provided on this breakout operates under the same principles but gives a few analog inputs to play with, and it has some built-in movement detection abilities.
The LIS3DH from STMicroelectronics is easy to set up; just wire up your choice of interface(SPI or I2C), supply 3.3V, and ground. This sensor works nicely with a breadboard for easy connection, and, because it gives some mass to the accelerometer, it more closely matches what might be expected from a project or cellphone.
The LIS3DH Breakout is a 3.3V device! Supplying voltages greater than ~3.6V can permanently damage the IC. As long as your Arduino has a 3.3V supply output, and you're fine with using I2C, you shouldn't need any extra level shifting. But if you want to use SPI, you may need a level shifter.