Recently I wrote about the appeal of the physical aspect to board games compared to the equivalent game on the iPad.

It’s timely that I just found out about the ePawn, which looks to connect the digital and tactile realms of gaming in a cohesive experience. From their site:

Real objects
Get back to real feelings, touch real objects and use them as the most natural interface with a system.
Instead of having 3D screens, have real objects on a screen: is there any better 3D than real 3D?
Real Time
ePawn’s tracking solution is fast.
Objects are seamlessly tracked by the system and they can even be used as devices for action games

Check it out in action:

ePawn is looking for a release in the second half of 2012 and until then all we can do is speculate. There are so many questions I have for ePawn, well I’ll just have to wait. So it goes.

I was surprised to find out that they aren’t using RFID and have created their own propriety system of unit detection and placement.