The team at Natural User Interface is working on an ActionScript 3 platform for tabletop applications, similar to Microsoft Surface. They have a demo table that they've been showing off, and will be bringing the table to Adobe MAX in Chicago at the end of September. The movie below shows a really cool demo.

There are more videos available on Google video here and here.

The key differences between this and what Microsoft is building are that the AS 3 library will be open source, allowing anyone to incorporate this type of functionality into their own applications. Developers will need a touch screen to handle the user's interactions, but the software will be available as open source. You can get involved and learn more at nuigroup.com.

I can see a big use for this in phones that are running FlashLite on them. Although FlashLite doesn't currently run ActionScript 3 code, hopefully that won't be too far down the road. And if Adobe were to ever get Flash running on a hardware chip, things could get really exciting!