We've seen the Surface identify and react to physical objects before (you might remember the 2008 election coverage's Obama and McCain bobbleheads), but this is the first time we've seen it recognize an object's third dimension. These Lumino blocks can be stacked, and the Surface will behave differently to two stacked blocks.

Aside from the obvious checkers implications (KING ME!), it's very simply the next step in the evolution of Surface and other touch interfaces to recognize the third dimension. It could enable all kinds of different gestures we haven't even thought of yet. Lumino itself is kind of a tech demo at the moment, but definitely a promising one. [DesignBoom and New Scientist]

The awkwardly-acronymed CRISTAL, which stands for ""Control of Remotely Interfaced Systems using Touch-based Actions in Living spaces," uses a camera to take an overhead shot of your living room setup, and you designate the compatible parts: TV, speakers, digital photo frame, HTPC, Roomba. Then you simply touch, swipe, drag and drop to control the room. Your digital media collection shows up as almost a Cover Flow-type design, and can be dragged either to the speakers or TV, or just examined more closely on the Surface-type screen itself. I love that you can watch a preview right there on the table, or quickly toss it to the TV to output it.

The system, right now, would cost a prohibitive $10,000-15,000, but the team says costs could definitely be lowered. Presumably they're not using an actual Surface, which costs about that much by itself. Still, it looks awfully responsive and just a blast to play with, so we hope they can figure out a way to get those costs down enough that, say, I can get one. [Wired]

Judging from the concept, the future works surprisingly well, so long as your desktop is populated with nothing but Asus products, computers, mugs and coffee products. [YouTube via Engadget]

Keep in mind, these two concept videos are not necessarily grounded in actual technologies that we have today, but were produced to "explore in a poetic narrative way how certain developing technologies could begin to blend and augment our daily lives".

The first clip is my personal favorite, as I love the idea of ordering a piano on my computer and watching it drop from my ceiling. But the second clip chooses a bit too much style over function for my taste. Do I really want information I'm looking for spilled across my desk like a spilled deck of cards?

*Keep in mind that both clips are available in YouTube HD, so you might not want to watch the embeds as they are. [i started something via SlashGear]

Gordon recounts the entire painful process in excruciating detail. Like, I got a headache reading it. It took 30 minutes to figure out where it plugged in—the most basic of all setup maneuvers—which required reading three manuals and calling tech support, who didn't know where to plug it in either.

Okay, it's up and running. Time to configure it. Logically, you can set everything up on the touch screen, right? I mean, it's a touch computer. After five minutes of fruitless poking, Gordon's crew realized maybe the mouse and keyboard were included for a reason—you need them to do the initial Surface set up. And after getting it to the point they could interact with it, another hour still was needed to finish setup.

At last, they finally got to the "truly dynamic and stunning user experience on the Surface." Philosophical question: Is an incredibly usable and fantastic product really those things if the process of getting it to that point is a nightmare? Sub-question: Is setting up a Surface really that hard? Or were Gordon and his people just horribly deficient human beings? [Kinesis Momentum]

Utilizing an array of infrared LEDs around the table, the guts of a PS3 Eye camera, a projector and some acrylic for the multitouch setup—along with a homemade wood cabinet and an old PC they had lying around (Core 2 Duo, 2 gigabytes RAM)—they fashioned together a multitouch beast for $350 that more or less mimics the surface experience.

The video runs through some of the demos available, which includes an ambient light/finger paint type program that can track all 10 fingers, a Pong-like game, and the usual photo shuffling, it's evident this was no half-baked project.

The project took a total of two weeks, and utilizes all open source software (Touchlib, AMCap, FlashOSC) to power the machine. For the entire lowdown (and tons more pics) on how this was constructed, definitely check out the post over on [Maximum PC].

Surface is used in the way you'd think it would be used—to zoom in and out and scale things to people can view a map from the sky. There's voice communication and real-time tracking as well as instant messaging. [Microsoft]

As you can see in the video, there's nothing ground-breaking here, save for some fancy cars and interactive swatches for interior and exterior colors (the software was developed by Vectorform for BMW, btw). If you're up for a stiff German guy reading off a cue card, though, then by all means clicky clicky. [BMW Blog, Thanks Haratiu!]

The interface is highly responsive, the different software demos are visually impressive, and the potential uses for this type of technology are legion. But not one of the participants in the video painted a mustache on his or her face using the mirror's wide range of drawing tools. It is for that reason that I deem this interactive mirror experiment a complete failure. [LitStudios]

The survey asks what “forms” of Oahu the participant would like to see: if they would most likely use it as a homework helper, for content creation (for things like editing recipes), or as an information hub. It also asks how likely the participant would buy it if it cost $1,500. Um, how about "YES. VERY LIKELY. GIVE IT TO ME NOW?" [I Started Something via Engadget]

It's not the best video, but you can see what's going on. Players on each edge of the table block the balls that keep increasing in number to cooperatively boost the score until someone can't keep up. Aside from old-school games, the table can also display some pretty great graphics:

Think of it as a DIY Lite-Brite (although I still want the Luminodot). [Sparkfun]

When Todd placed McCain and Obama bobblehead dolls on the Surface, the national map would change colors to show each candidate's specific chances. Put on the Obama bobblehead, and the map turns varying shades of blue. Use McCain, and it turns red. Then he turned Dark Helmet and made the bobbleheads fight each other, revealing the true reason he ordered them up in the first place. The off-screen newswoman didn't seem too impressed, quipping, "Now the five-year-olds are glued to the television," but I'm 22, so the joke's on her! [MSNBC]