Think of a big iPhone set inside a table, and you have the Microsoft Surface, sort of. A giant ceiling camera capturing the Surface for television broadcast kept fooling onlookers into thinking the gadget worked by way of simple projection, but that's not the case--five infra-red cameras sit inside the table's cabinet, able to pick up over 50 points of contact at once.

But the strength of the Surface isn't its immediately-wowing touch sensitivity and gesture controls. No, the best thing about the Surface is its magical application suite.

For instance, at one point a Microsoft rep took out a digital camera, shot the crowd in front of him, and then set the camera on the table. The table instantly sensed the camera, a thin circle appearing around it, and then literally a second later the just-taken picture was dropped onto the table. Resized and rotated with gestures, it could then be immediately turned into a digital postcard, inserted into an email, or dragged onto another wi-fi enabled device set on the table.

Maybe the easiest application to comprehend was the paint program, which allows you to draw across the Surface with 1 to 10 fingers at once. You can even pick up a standard paint brush and dabble oils along the digital display, or simply smack some hand-prints on the canvas for those who never got a chance to in kindergarten.

Unfortunately, it will be a while before any of us get to use one of these. Microsoft estimates 3-5 years before they're cheap enough to consider for consumer production. You could be lucky enough to run into one before then--the $5,000-10,000 commercial units should be in the hands of corporations sometime this year.

Vuzix iWear glasses

However, the other version--the already-released VR920--is far more impressive. This model was designed specifically for PC games, and features some pretty spiffy head tracking technology. What this means is that, in a game like Flight Simulator, you don't have to use a mouse to look around--you can simply turn your head to the left in order to look out the window of a plane.

Which is exactly what I was doing the second I put on the glasses. The view is the same as the AV920-C, but the head tracking makes it. You have a full 360 degrees of movement to work with, so turning fully around gives you a view of the back of your seat. Unlike many other similar glasses, the image wasn't blurry--but it was a little faded. Even still, it was a great effect.

The glasses are marketed toward players of any games with mouselook functions, such as MMOs--although having to snap your head from left to right during a pitched battle might become pretty annoying. Sometimes games are an improvement over reality, and imposing VR technology on them isn't always the most natural of transitions.

The glasses also include a microphone and tiny speakers. All this for $399.

The Shaft

Not The Shaft.

For all you Guitar Hero/Rock Band detractors, here's a real Fisher Price toy from Overline Gaming. Shaped like a giant Wii Classic controller, this thing is all bubbly plastic, with buttons as large as gods, and a massive joystick protruding from the wired superstructure. The idea is for it to work as an arcade pad, but it seems more than awkwardly designed for such a purpose.

And a "turbo" button? Seriously? Is it still 1994 and nobody told me?

For those interested in The Shaft--I admit to never owning a single arcade pad--you can grab a white Shaft, black Shaft, or pink Shaft when The Shaft is unleashed later this month.

SE2 ITC One Component Case

It has two bays for the Xbox 360 and HD DVD player, integrated DirectTV HD DVR, Bryston digital surround processor, D-Class speaker amp, quiet cooling system, anti-noise system, iPod charger, rear connections for every other input, and a 4.3 inch touch screen to control it all.

$24,995. No, that's not a typo. $24,995.

_PAGE_BREAK_ Powercast Wireless Power

Anything that runs on batteries could potentially have a Powercast adapter. For instance, an iPod was shown on the floor with a small black tab that plugged into the bottom of it, enabling the device for use with the nearby broadcaster.

When Powercast-designed lights were placed within a small radius of a broadcaster hidden inside a table, they became illuminated, signaling a successful connection of juice. The iPod had to be placed directly on top of plastic conductors before it picked up the power, but the goal here is to free consumers from the clutter of wires and cords, rather than achieve a massive range of wireless electricity.

I can only hope they make a PS3 controller attachment. That thing is never charged.

OLogic Brain-controlled Robots

NeuroSky, a company developing technology that interprets brainwaves, has teamed up with OLogic to see their devices put into action. The result is a series of robots controlled with your mind.

The controller wears a wireless blue headset, with Neurosky sensors attached at three points, and an RF transmitter tied to the back. The device takes a reading of your baseline brain-state, and then rates your subsequent concentration based on that. When focused and calm, the robot moves forward, sometimes in unpredictable directions--and sometimes straight into a crowd of people, requiring many hasty apologies on your robot slave's behalf.

Distractions--such as a pretty girl that happened to walk by just as the demonstration was starting--can interrupt the sensitive brainwave data, halting the robot immediately. A little meter on the side of the robot indicates how strong the brain wave is, allowing you to figure the device out by trial and error.

An earlier version of the Neurosky sensors was demonstrated using the Half-Life 2 engine--users had to pick up simple objects by moving a cursor around in Garry's Mod--and now Sega Toys is looking to apply the technology in its business.

Gaming applications include a peripheral that might judge how nervous a player is, lowering your aim in a shooter applicably.

ZCam 3D Motion Sensor

On a desktop interface, the ZCam interprets hand-based commands to navigate through media. A sidways peace sign is interpreted as "open," while a simple thumbs up, down, left, or right flips through selections. It's not difficult to pick up, but it's not the most useful application of the technology, either.

The real fun comes with the gaming. A simple boxing game had been set up, allowing users to put up their dukes and attempt to punch out a 3D opponent. The ZCam did an impressive job of sensing where your hands were, carrying out punches and dodges with accuracy. The depth sensor allows you to step backwards to evade a punch, and after a few seconds of jumping around like Ali, I was already tired.

It's hard to imagine this thing taking off, but the technology behind it is interesting nonetheless. Who knows--the next evolution of the Wii concept could be the first game console without a controller.