Particle emission via object projecting emission map (like Blenders Dynamic weight paint)

Does anyone know a way (or even if it can be done) for you to be able to make particles emit from a surface, by using another object as a controller?

For example, I want to be able to paint the vertices, that the particles emit from in real-time. Blender using a dynamic weight paint system, where one mesh/object is the brush and the other is the canvas. This allows the brush (lets say a energy beam) paint the vertices of the canvas (ground), so that when the beam contacts the floor and travels across, the ground sprouts particles of debris.

I hope I've explained it clearly.

Thanks