Oh, this is confusing -- the preamble makes it sound like you can use this for large datasets and each character you type will fire off a new query on the server (like Google Suggest), but I don't see that implemented.

Anyone know if it's possible to use this without downloading all of the objects to be searched to the client?

Yes. I'm one of the authors, and it is definitely possible to use only remote requests.

Not a minute too soon - I know exactly where to put it to good use! :)