Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Meet the Laptop of 2015

Posted by Zonk on from the o-hai-laptop dept.

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."

4 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. In the future nobody touches anything by jandrese · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --

    I read the internet for the articles.
    1. Re:In the future nobody touches anything by kebes · · Score: 4, Interesting

      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.

    2. Re:In the future nobody touches anything by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --

      GPL Deconstructed
  2. I don't want a laptop at all by geophile · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.