The ePawn Arena is one of the more curious devices at E3 2011. The Arena is a 23-inch touchscreen that responds to pieces (like chess pieces or miniatures) with electronics embedded on the underside. Each piece can be treated as a different unit, in the event you’re playing chess or a tabletop game, it will be able to differentiate a plane from a tank, and a king from a queen.

Games programmed for it will be able to tell which direction units are pointing and even how far apart they are. If we take a tabletop war game as an example, a well programmed game will be able to determine whether a unit is in range to fire, and whether rendered obstacles are in the way. It can also generate graphical effects like smoke or blood if a unit is hit.

ePawn will likely come with embeddable electronic pieces, so you can use your own existing pieces, in the event you have your own well-painted miniatures.