Mapping of physical controls for surface computing

A system for dynamically mapping physical controls to application controls for an application, comprising:

• a plurality of repositionable physical controller devices (PCDs), each PCD comprising one or more physical controls;
• a computer comprising a touch-sensitive display surface which is shared by a plurality of collaborating users, wherein the application is executed on the computer, and the application and application controls are displayed on the display surface;
• and
• a computer program having program modules executable by the computer, wherein the computing device is directed by the program modules of the computer program to,
• recognize and identify each PCD placed by the users on the display surface, and
• create a dynamic mapping between a user-selected application control and a user-selected physical control on a user-selected PCD.

A computer-implemented process for dynamically mapping physical controls on a repositionable physical controller device to application controls for an application being executed on a computer comprising a shared touch-sensitive display surface, comprising using the computer to perform the following process actions:

• upon a user placing a physical controller device (PCD) on the display surface, recognizing and identifying the PCD and displaying a mapping aura for the PCD, wherein,
• the PCD comprises one or more continuously adjustable physical controls and one or more discretely adjustable physical controls, and
• the mapping aura comprises,
• one or more continuous virtual slots, each corresponding to a different continuously adjustable physical control, and
• one or more discrete virtual slots, each corresponding to a different discretely adjustable physical control;
• upon the user touching an activate direct-touch button which is displayed within the mapping aura, displaying a highlighted direct-touch widget adjacent to each application control displayed on the display surface which is available to be mapped to the physical controls on the PCD;
• upon the user selecting a particular application control which is available to be mapped and which is continuously adjustable, by touching the highlighted direct-touch widget displayed adjacent to said particular application control, and upon the user dragging the touched direct-touch widget into a chosen continuous virtual slot displayed in the mapping aura associated with the user's PCD,
• displaying a copy of the direct-touch widget which corresponds to the selected application control within the chosen continuous virtual slot, and
• dynamically mapping the selected application control to the particular continuously adjustable physical control which corresponds to the chosen continuous virtual slot, wherein said mapping allows the user to dynamically choose to interact with the selected application control either via the particular continuously adjustable physical control, the direct-touch widget displayed adjacent to the selected application control, or the copy of the direct-touch widget displayed within the desired continuous virtual slot;
• and
• upon the user selecting a particular application control which is available to be mapped and which is discretely adjustable, by touching the highlighted direct-touch widget displayed adjacent to said particular application control, and upon the user dragging the touched direct-touch widget into a chosen discrete virtual slot displayed in the mapping aura associated with the user's PCD,
• displaying a copy of the direct-touch widget which corresponds to the selected application control within the chosen discrete virtual slot, and
• dynamically mapping the selected application control to the particular discretely adjustable physical control which corresponds to the chosen discrete virtual slot, wherein said mapping allows the user to dynamically choose to interact with the selected application control either via the particular discretely adjustable physical control, the direct-touch widget displayed adjacent to the selected application control, or the copy of the direct-touch widget displayed within the desired discrete virtual slot.