Volkswagen of America will run two ads during the Super Bowl XLV on February 6, one for the 2012 New Beetle and one for the 2012 Passat. Forget the first ad, it’s the ad for the 2012 Passat that caught our attention.

It shows a young boy in a Darth Vader costume trying desperately to actually use Darth Vader’s force powers around the house, to no avail. It is only when he stands in front of the new Passat and commands it to start that it works. The kid’s father has started up the car with a remote starter in the key-fob. It’s a cute and geeky ad. We love it.

Are you content with simple multi-touch and built-in accelerometers? Microsoft Research thinks not. In fact they’re already working hard in the labs, toward integrating force-sensing technology. The kind of thing that will enable gestures and let you twist on-screen imagery without making UMPCs out of flexible material.

Those behind the idea feel that such tech would “turn an otherwise passive component that just holds the device together into an active input surface.” Auditory cues might even enable users to be alerted when they’ve applied enough pressure to cause a change. I just figure it’s a great way to play Rubik’s Cube in the future.