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.
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.
As is pretty much everything; new ideas are far rarer than people want to admit.
AKA innovation
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.