I went into that video thinking "Big deal; it's a helicopter inside a ball", but the way it moved in the air was actually very impressive -- especially the way it responded to being pushed by the demonstrator about a minute in.
Old ideas put together in a new way (literally: off-the-shelf components). It's convenient how everything - rotor, control surfaces - is tucked away. And it can execute a rolling landing.
They say they had a hover/fly plane, but take-off and landings were difficult, and the spherical design was an attempt to solve it (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF0uLnMoQZA&t=1m40s (1:40)). Although... perhaps the impressive aspects come from the R&D in the antecedent aircraft.
Hobbyists have long showed-off hovering remote-controlled model planes; the automatic control is what's really impressive, encapsulating that skill.
A helicopter's rotors rotate in two ways that are different from airplanes.
1) the whole rotor can tilt in a specific direction, called Collective. If you want helicopter to move left, the entire rotor assembly tilts left, changing the angle that thrust is generated.
2) The angle of attack (AoA) on the individual blades can change. If the helicopter is hovering, this alters the amount of lift generated.
In contrast, a prop driven airplane has propellers that are static. The only control you have over them is the rotation speed.
In the video, the ball is using an airplane-style prop, and using airplane-style control surfaces to change direction.
True, but this is all about the 'wings'. An one propeller heli will not fly, it will only spin around. But this thing uses flaps (or wings as you like).
That's why this is not just a heli inside a ball.
