Microsoft's TechFest seems to feature an inordinate number of Brits - based not only in the company's Cambridge research centre, but also in Redmond, Asia and beyond.
The fruits of UK researchers have proved very interesting, including one project that caught my eye; Second Light - a system that one person described as "Surface Plus Plus".
It's a glass table-style display (like Microsoft Surface) but with a difference. By sliding a piece of paper or other semi-transparent material over the table, you can see hidden information about the objects on parade - in their example, for instance, an astronomical map appears over a picture of the night sky.
It's as if you are exposing a whole extra layer of information above the screen, a sort of digital X-Ray. In fact, the whole thing is really a visual trick: there are two projectors throwing different images up in the air, which alternate rapidly. A switchable diffuser lets you By breaking into the second image with your piece of paper you get to see the "invisible" layer, which then exposes (in their example there was text attached to a photo, or an astronomical map on a picture of the night sky).
But that's not all.
More work is underway to develop the system - such as enabling 3D imaging of, say, CT scans for doctors - and it's certainly clear that there might be educational opportunities for museums and suchlike. It's very cool - although right now I imagine you'd have to sell people on using a Surface before you can take them onto the next generation.
Conveniently located next to Second Light was another intriguing - and probably more immediately useful - system called "nanotouch". This takes the idea that you'd get a lot more value out of a small touchscreen if, well, you didn't have your fingers in the way the whole time.
So, instead of using your fingers on the screen itself, you use your fingers on the back of the device. The demo on display used gaming as an example - using touch to move your on-screen character around without ever needing to obscure it from view.
Nanotouch isn't brand new - I'd read about it before - but this is the first time I've seen it in operation, and it's very intuitive... if you incorporate it in the right way (here's a video from New Scientist to show you).
Researcher Patrick Baudich (who is also looking at other touch-based systems to try and take them forward) also allows other objects - ones that are even smaller than an MP3 player or phone - to be operated while you can still see the screen.