Meet the Laptop of 2015

cweditor writes "Like concept cars at auto shows, the computer industry designs 'concept notebooks' to imagine the machines of the future. The 'concepts' may not come to market as-is, but it's likely some of their ideas, components and features will. Take a look at systems you might be using in 7 years. In one, a touch-sensitive screen acts as the system's keyboard and mouse, allowing you to slide your finger across the screen to immediately shut off the display and keep what you're working on confidential. Their associated image gallery includes a prototype for a dual-screen laptop."

Comments

In the future nobody touches anything

[jandrese]

Apparently in the future the idea of tactile feedback is dead and everybody just types on glass screens like in the movies. Presumably these laptop designers have not actually tried that themselves to see just how much people actually like typing on a piece of glass with no cues at to where the keys are.

Re:In the future nobody touches anything

[jellomizer]

Tactile feedback is kinda overrated. I have an iPhone and I like it. Even typing is fairly easy...(for the small space). Even for a full laptop I doubt that the lack of tactile feedback will be a major problem in the long run. You just have to get use to it. It is funny the Technology Croud who is working with one of the fastes areas of change are often the most resistant to it.

Re:In the future nobody touches anything

[kebes]

Agreed. Typing on rigid, flat surfaces is painful and inefficient.

Which is why a combination of the concepts presented in the article would be far more attractive than any of them separately (I'm surprised the author of the piece didn't pick up on this): One of the laptops is billed as being "for blind people" because the surface can deform to generate bumps that the blind can read. The rest of the laptops have flat touch-screens for keyboards. Which is great for dynamic layouts but sucks for typing.

But combining them would be amazing. Imagine a keyboard that can reconfigure not only what is displayed on each key (like the Optimus), but also the keys themselves. If this "surface deformation" technology was good enough (and could be integrated with flexible displays) then you could have a surface that acts as a flat screen some of the time (for reading e-books, as a drawing pad, etc.) but generates the tactile relief of keys when typing is required.

More generally, it could reconfigure to generate new keyboard layouts as required. This would also solve one of the criticisms with the iPhone and iPod touch: you can't operate them without looking directly at the keys. Imagine if in addition to visual changes on the screen, there were bumps and grooves that dynamically appeared so that by touch alone you could feel the current key layout.

This, to me, is the ultimate future for compact computing devices: we will have screens that can vary both display and topography. Of course the technology to do this will be difficult to "get right" (key topography is only half of typing: you need the keys to "spring" properly)... but there is nothing impossible in principle about having deformable surfaces with integrated flexible displays.

Re:In the future nobody touches anything

[cbreaker]

As much as people keep going on about their iPhones, you need tactile feedback to type at any speed, and to do it without looking. These screens might work okay for an occasional use notebook but not as a general purpose business machine.

Not only do normal keyboards provide an excellent method of interfacing with a computer, they also cushion the fingers as you type so you don't experience pain and pressure by tapping away at a hard surface all day.

It looks pretty as a rendered image, but functionally I'd never own a computer for regular use that didn't have a normal keyboard - unless you could speak to the computer as you would in Star Trek land.

Re:In the future nobody touches anything

[2nd Post!]

Why wouldn't a touch-screen provide the bump? Vibration (or advanced haptic technology) can provide that.

Even better, with a touch screen, EVERYWHERE you put your fingers, initially, is the homerow.

Re:In the future nobody touches anything

[Anonymous Coward]

"To succeed it has to be more than cool, it has to be better." Which is why those highly reflective laptop screens never caught on.

-Typed while moving my head around to try to make out the article on my glossy laptop screen instead of just the perfect reflection of the building across the street.

One thing I noticed...

[brennanw]

... it looks like the laptops of the future all have crappy keyboards.

It's the whole "gee, look, with touch-sensitive screens we can paint a keyboard on the screen that you can use instead of an actual keyboard!"

How the heck are you supposed to touch-type on something that gives you no tactile response?

Hardly "futuristic"...

[TripMaster Monkey]

A whole bunch of "futuristic" designs, and not one that utilizes a flexible LCD.

With a flexible LCD that rolls up when not in use, coupled with a flexible keyboard that likewise rolls up, one can escape (at least partially), the limiting factor of computer design...that is, having a system that a human can interface with comfortably.

small dual screens is kind of a dumb idea

[JSBiff]

I've always thought the idea of dual screens on the Gameboy DS was a bit of a strange idea. I mean, why not just use one screen that is twice as big? Then, games that want to use a 'dual screen' concept can always split the screen in half and draw one set of stuff to one half, and another set of stuff to the other half. But, other games can use it as a single, large screen.

I personally think it probably comes down to cost - it's cheaper for Nintendo to buy two smaller screens than a single large screen. My understanding of LCD technology is that, apparently, it's difficult to grow the crystals without bad pixels, so that as the screens get larger, they rapidly get more expensive, because it's decreasingly likely that you'll get an LCD panel of a particular size without flaws - so all the flawed ones either get thrown away, or maybe they can cut them down to smaller displays (that is, cut out the bad part and end up with 1 or 2 smaller panels) and sold more cheaply at the small size?

Anyhow - *my* laptop of the future has a simple white (or neutral color) flap onto which a display can be projected, and the flap can be folded under the laptop when I want to project onto another surface, like a projection screen or white wall. That is, a laptop with built-in projector, not an LCD. (I suppose, ultimately, for power consumption purposes, you'll never have a projector built in, because it would take too much energy to run, but I can dream, right?)

Re:small dual screens is kind of a dumb idea

[Amouth]

well if you use a large incedecent murcury bulb then yea.. it isn't going to happen.. but if you use some of the new laser projector tech . then it is more than possiable..

http://www.audioholics.com/news/editorials/laser-projectors-coming-to-cell-phones-and-pdas

I don't want a laptop at all

[geophile]

What I want is my 1TB USB keychain (or iphone) to have my favorite OS, apps, and all my data, and to be able to plug it into CPU/keyboard/mouse/display/diskless/OSless stations in airplanes, cafes, hotels, etc.

The various Linux-on-a-thumbdrive distributions and products are a step in the right direction. What we really need now is for vendors to design stations that these doodads can plug into.

computer of the future

[davidwr]

The computer of the future will be a bionic implant.

The one right before that will just be a "box" with the thinking parts, a visual display which will either be eyeglass-mounted, a handheld-sized projection device that projects onto a table or wall, a keyboard-equivalent which might be gloves, a flat, rollable keyboard, or even a camera-based sensor that detects where your fingers are, and a mouse-trackpad equivalent which might be 3-d gestures or something that reads 2-d finger movements similar to the keyboard already mentioned. Some computers will have speech, speech/vocal-cord detection and speech-input processing, body-movement detectors for games and more practical applications, and other input and output devices.

The box will be wirelessly connected to the tubular internets 24/7. Power-recharge will be wireless and will probably piggyback off of body motion, body heat, and other ambient energy sources in addition to supplied power. Capacitors or battries will store power.

Modded Offtopic already?

[spookymonster]

I'd thought my point was quite relevant, actually... tactile feedback is a critical element in a touch typist's accuracy. The fact that the parent's post had typos showed that, to him, accuracy was not as important as speed (not right now at least). If speed was his primary concern, then it is easy to see why the idea of using technology to improve his accuracy was so easily dismissed.

It is easy to see how accuracy plays less of a role in a world where thumb typing slang is de rigeur and the excuse of "you know what I meant" is commonplace.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

A more likely scenario...

[gillbates]

Is that the laptop of the future:

1. Will weigh 15 pounds, and have a 21" LCD. But you won't be able to play HD movies unless you buy the Media Package - which will require a special version of Vista and add another pound for the hardware security module.
2. Will have a battery life of about 45 minutes.
3. Will have a 2 TB hard drive, half of which will be consumed by Windows.
4. Will take 15 minutes to boot.
5. Will have a 1 GHz processor with 16 cores, only one of which will be enabled while on battery power.

You know, people just don't get it. If I'm buying a desktop, yes, I want all of the bells and whistles and don't care how heavy or how much power it uses. But when I buy a laptop, I'm not buying a mobile desktop. I want something that's light and easily portable. I want something with a keyboard that's usable, not merely "painted on" as an afterthought; tactile feedback matters. I want something which can be opened in economy class on an airline - the last corporate laptop I had was so big that this was impossible - I used my Palm instead. And I want something that can be used for hours on end without a recharge.