Microsoft Surface
Easily the coolest thing I saw at the show, the Microsoft Surface doesn't exactly have a direct application to gaming--but who cares? I got my hands on this thing for a few moments, and it was more fun than half of the games I play.

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.

The same wi-fi enabled, wireless downloading trick was pulled off with a MP3 player, with songs easily transferred from player to Surface. Once on the Surface, album covers appear scattered across the table, easily selected for play. Other applications were tailored specially to demonstrate the commercial use of the device, such as a selection of wine bottles that could be flipped through with a simple gesture, with information and pricing displayed for each.

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

These things were the only gaming glasses at the show--either 2D or 3D--that made any sense to me. One flavor reduces a split-screen console multiplayer match to a personal screen, projecting it inside your vision as a giant 2D image, equivalent to a 62" television. If you're into that, the AV920-C will be out this February, and will support the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii.

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

What's the white Wii controller that's a giant hit with all the gamers?

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

Ever wish all of your devices had a home in one self-contained case? SE2's new device won a CES design award for tackling just that problem.

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.