Surface Meets A Wireless Controller

Has anybody else noticed that many of the compelling tabletop computing demos use the touch surface to control a vertically mounted screen?

Here's Another:


Raptor: Building Games with a Tabletop Computer from David Smith on Vimeo.

Interesting PhD. work from David Smith of Queens College.

I like:
1. That the game controller's physical presence keeps users oriented as to control clusters. I've seen a lot of behind closed doors stuff, but this is the first public demonstration of a smart object that works for me.

2. The 3D manipulation of the terrain. I can't really see, but the depth of the holes seems to be time-based. How could that idea be used to convey ambient information?

3. That the "Car Stamp" artifact is actually a model of a car. This may seem a bit cheesy, but it sure makes it easy to remember which tool to use.