The Synaptics forcepad can track five fingers at a 15-gram resolution, up to a kilogram, according to Anthony Searle, a systems design engineer. He said the forcepad will ship in ultrabooks next year, though Synaptics won't say yet which hardware partners it is working with.

The company showed the touchpad integrated into a prototype Lenovo ultrabook, but for most of the demonstrations at UIST, the touchpad connected to the laptops via USB.

The demonstration projects themselves, such as the puppet, are at the research stage and there are no immediate plans to commercialize them.