Touchscreens are great, but for many of us nothing beats old fashioned tactile controls. That seems to be one of the reasons why Lyndsay Williams of Girton Labs is in the process of developing SenseSurface—a system that allows users to stick working knobs to on-screen virtual controls. Apparently, the magnetic knobs can be placed anywhere on an LCD because the movement is picked up by a "unique sensing surface" attached behind the screen. It seems fairly unnecessary, but I'm sure that there are practical applications for this for music and graphics fields—or anyone who is tired of smudging up a touchscreen. Must be seen in video:

[Guardian via Music Thing via Boing Boing Gadgets]

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