Emulator in the Digital Doddle app

Hello! I'm trying to complete the Digital Doodle app tutorial while using the MIT App Inventor Emulator but I've seen to run into a dead end when applying the accelerometer. My code looks the same as the tutorial but nothing happens when I shake my laptop. Thoughts? ps. I'm going to use the emulator for other projects as well so this would help.

How is the emulator supposed to know that you are shaking your laptop?
How would your laptop know that you are shaking it?