Completely unusable as a controller, but an interesting direction to take nonetheless. Perhaps timecode will be eventually replaced by just a special little (infrared?) USB camera and a visually-encoded record – the technology is definitely there, what with optical mice made for gaming having 1000dpi resolution or more over a USB 2.0 connection.
i think the mulittouch interfaces people have been making are pretty cool:
optical timecode has been experimented with and some homemade controllers like this
use optical mice taken apart.
with the traditional DVS it is so simple to just add the timecode record and soundcard to existing dj setups. anything optical would require you to add more to the setup.
the stanton scs.1d uses an optical sensor under its platter doesn’t it? at least in the videos it works like a charm.
while there are better alternatives to it, timecoded vinyl is the most flexible option since you have alot less to carry to any club that features turntables in the booth.