Slashdot Mirror
Concept Computer Based on a Tea Cup Design
webarnold writes "A new concept computer is being designed to look like a tea cup. Using holographic projectors, view your data inside the cup, 'spilled' onto the table, or transfer it to other Cup PC users by pouring data into their cup." Acceptance of something like this seems a bit far-fetched given current tech, but no nomad-space comparisons are being made.
Douglas Adams would be proud.
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
OMG!!! Ponies!
...the athletic cup computer design.
Sharing data has never been more fun!
"It's all just meme meme around here"
This is the killer business plan.
1. Hey Mary, check out this spreadsheet!
2. *Spill coffee on Mary's lap*
3. !#%^&&%!$!#
4. ????
5. Profit!
Because proper tea cannot be owned.
Great. I can finaly call tech support saying, "we've got a tea bag situation here..." and not get in trouble.
Almost, but not quite, entirely unlike a PC.
reference
Operator, give me the number for 911!
So it's talking about a piece of hardware we can't even build (last time I shopped for holographic projectors that can be embedded in a ceramic cup they were hard to find) that has a user interface nobody would want (how do you choose what data is transfered?) on a product that will never be built. Sounds like a real winner of a story. I guess it employed some graphic artist for like half a day, so that's something.
I read the internet for the articles.
I said give the tea to Jackson Roykirk! Jackson Roykirk you half-brained silicon tard-bucket!
Ster-il-ize
Ster-il-ize
What do you mean you cleaned the kitchen! That was my doctoral thesis! ARG!
meh
...it's not really my cup of tea - if you know what I mean.
As of 10/06/03, I hate COBOL developers.
Just what the average computer user needs: something that will encourage and beckon them to pour liquid into their computer.
Try telling me that's not gonna happen.
Seriously, who comes up with ideas like this? And more importantly, why are those people allowed to have internet access?
must be the reason Starbucks won't let me have more than 4 shots of espresso at once.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
Tech Support: Hi welcome to Cup Tech support, how can we assist you today? Luser: Yea my cup won't turn on. Tech Support: Is it fully charged sir? Luser: Yea its in the charging station right now. The ring around it is all red. Tech Support: K, I'm going to need you to bring up the diagnostic screen, it's the touch button at the bottom of the cup on the inside. Luser: Um... I can't reach there right now... Tech Support: Uhhhh may I ask why? Luser: Well the coffee in it is too hot and I'd burn my hand. Tech Support: ...Sir... you can't put coffee in your computer.
Luser: It's ok, I didn't put any sugar in it so it wont get sticky or anything.
Tech Support: No sir, you computer is broken. Go take it in to get it repaired.
Luser: WHAT?
Etc, etc.
All they have is poorly conceived "artist renderings" of how such a thing MIGHT work. I thought part of being high tech meant that it was real in some way. DNF must be uber-high-tech, then!
Besides, I fail to see how such thing could be remotely useful on a day-to-day basis. Fact is, most of the things that people use computers to do are best implemented in 2D space - and things that 3D holographic rendering would be useful for - protein analysis, genetic mapping, etc, need something a little more substantial.
maybe someday we'll have tactile holograms a la the doctor for Voyager - until then, I'm not even holding my breath for "Minority Report" style interface coming to a PC near me anytime soon.
What happens if you try and drink from your tea cup? Can we put alcohol in our teacups and mix data with booze? bring a whole new meaning to "sippin' on haterade"? Accidently lose all your files when you mistakenly pour a real beverage into your computer tea cup? And why would anyone want to pour data anywhere? What would happen if you dropped the cup? Would data just explode all over the floor? How do you clean up spilled data? Does one cry over spilled data, like they do over spilled milk?
I prefer my drag and drop just fine...let's stick with dragging files onto tabletops before we start spilling them all over the place
Last thing we need is some slashdotter accidently spilling his porn folder on the coffee table instead of his excel project.
I don't think people are quite ready for this one...
So where am I supposed to put the CDs? I mean, the cupholder will obviously already be in use...
If you do any sort of design for a living, be it industrial, graphic, architectural, whatever; the reality of your job is that silly things like management, focus groups, budget, laws of physics, etc. keep you from being as creative as you'd like sometimes. To balance that out, it's not uncommon for design professionals to find other outlets in which to release that creativity, to let it thrive, if only for a moment, so that it doesn't completely shrivel up and die inside of them.
Half of those people work on little side projects like this. They know it's not really realistic or practical. It might not even be a particularly good idea, but it's something that's fun to let their brain chew on, and something that's fun to discuss with others.
The other half of those people go become college professors, and they use their students' projects to satisfy their creative urges, with the minor side-effect of not preparing those students at all for their future jobs. Then when the students have their big crits, the reviewers inevitably skewer them for not having any connection to reality.
But I'm not bitter about it. Nope.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Shouldn't this article have been posted 3 days ago?
But does it run linux?
If so you could run CUPS on cups... and that'd just be spiffy.
So much time and energy wasted trying to come up with fancy data processing metaphors that refer to "intuitive" concepts and situations... Like if educated adults were retarded children and needed to be spoonfed some special way of handling their environment so that they don't find it too challenging. This is mostly useless, the signal/noise in this kind of "breakthrough" research is historically one order of magnitude lower that what valuable R&D dollars are supposed to be spent for.
99.99% of what we take for granted today in data manipulation ergonomics is incremental improvements brought about by REAL experts in ergonomics who observe REAL people using REAL computers.
I'd end up spilling porn all over my boss' desk
However, I have lost perhaps 20 USB flash memory sticks.
Sure this is a bit over-the-top, but it's exactly the kind of breakaway thinking that can lead to something good. Stuff like this is what's required to get away from the beige box computer mentality (even if the boxes are sometimes camouflaged to look like some other color of box, or flattened out so they look like a pad or a table). Not to mention that it actually sounds kind of like a fun way to handle certain tasks.
You never really know how close to the edge you can go until you fall off.
I guess we can now have yet a another meaning to is your cup half empty or half full.....or does your cup need a refill? http://www.findthebestlawyers.com/
Did they have to rip off the Wii design so thoroughly?
Klingon programs don't timeshare, they battle for supremacy.
Is this our first step towards the Infinite Probability Drive? I hear the dynamics of the fluid movement of tea is rather important towards its functionality...
So now I can spill my data onto my laptop just like so many people do with coffee?
When you pour tea out of a vessel into another container, your vessel has lost tea, and the new container has gained tea. Not so with data. If I up my data to you, in the end we both have copies. The reality is more like a cup that pours infinitely (much to the RIAA's chagrin). So pouring tea is the wrong metaphor. In any case, as others have pointed out, the hard part of the user interface is selecting what data to transfer. The easy part (and the only part identified in the article) is initiating the transfer and indicating when it's done. Oh, by the way, if a giant transfer takes an hour, do I have to sit there for an hour holding a teacup? Wrong metaphor.
--- Often in error; never in doubt!
Espresso, Cappuccino, Chai, or JOLT?
you can't tell ME that the entire Internets is in that little cup?
but what happens if I forget and pour coffee in it?
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Because proper tea is theft .
AEIOU: open-source anonymous internet currency
This teacup concept is of course a mere flight of fancy, and it's certainly interesting. But I wonder about these kinds of efforts to make PCs more "simple". Computers just aren't simple devices, and consequently, most attempts to make them easy to use are doomed to failure. Take, for example, the "pouring data" idea. It seems that it can only work with other "teacup" PCs. So if you want to share data with a PC in a more ordinary form factor, you will need some other way of connecting the teacup to it, e.g. a USB cable. Suddenly this "simple" PC isn't so simple any more, because now there are two totally different ways of working with it.
I'm not saying computers should be difficult or arduous to use, but they do require expertise. And if you try to gloss over that fact, you will wind up either with frustrated users who find that their computer is not as simple as they were led to believe, or with a device that isn't capable of doing very much.
Gamer-Cases with fans like jetengines and I'm-cheap-and-look-so-PCs from supermarket
discounters and even gas stations, a computer which looks like a computer would be a
fresh and cool idea of a design.
(IMHO) it would be perfect if the designer knows what "bauhaus design" is.
Sometimes designers need to be praised for their bold new visions and paradigm-breaking ideas, other times they need to be smacked in the head and have their hallucinogenics confiscated.
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
Java.
I'm not sure what would be worse, wiiCUP or iCUP. For some reason this article brings out the grade schooler in me.
*ducks*
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
Tea Cup!!! what are you an Apple user, now a Beer mug is more like it..
Has anyone else seen that commercial where the guy "clicks" on his stereo and the "drags" it to overlay his car, sitting outside? How cool would that be. I want what I'm hearing on the radio to be saved in my car's stereo, so I "cut and paste" it to my car in 3-D space (maybe with a souped-up wii-mote?). I want that picture on my wall to be my new desktop background, so I do the same thing. I want what I'm seeing to play via webcast so I draw a "box" around whatever my point of focus is, "lock" it in place somehow, and then drag that box onto my web page. I want to search for DIY articles on my keg fridge, so I click it and drag it into a search. I then take any results I like and drag them over to my printer, which then spits out a hard copy...
I've been thoroughly entertaining myself trying to think of new possibilities for this kind of real-time, hyper-spatial ability...
There is simply too much glass..
I am sorely disappointed by the negative responses to this article.
Is this Slashdot? You sound like a bunch of klutzes who wouldn't know how to get into their cars if they locked the keys inside. Who wouldn't know how to fix their glasses if the frames broke.
It's called a concept. Ed Land, the founder of Polaroid, gave his engineers a block of wood small enough to fit into a back pocket, and told them to build an instant camera that size. And they didn't whine about how the technology wasn't ready for it, they built it! And that camera revolutionized p0rn.
If you can't build a holographic projector inside a teacup with $50 worth of parts, get out of the way for somebody who can.
Am I too late to make a 2 Girls 1 Cup joke?
The internets made my brains a bit too corrupted: I can't even watch this image from the article without thinking "Hey, two girls, one cup"
Ok, I am signing up for some shocktherapy right now.
I'll take C-Cups over PC Cups any day.
all it needs is two more girls, nasty ones.
watch the porn industry go boom with this cup
It should be called 'Tea', and the version numbering should be a bit like Ubuntu's release naming. I suggest they name the release version 'Earl Grey, hot'.
First we had a computer used to render a teapot. Now we have a computer made to look like a teacup.
(slashdotters[int]*computers[int]) / gallons of coffee = coefficeint of puns about a coffee cup-shaped computer
I, for one, welcome our new floating-point overlords.
So, if you find a bug (real or data) in your cup, do you order a new cup of data or can you just scoop it out?
Did you try reinstalling CUPS?
Obviously the very next step is computers that look like penises.
I bet a lot of people are looking forward to running the "hot coffee" mod on this baby!
You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it dissolve.
If you want to appeal to the average working man wouldn't it make more sense to make it look like a bottle of beer?
In before: ...)
iCup (I, see,
Java
Etc.
Also - wow. I can make a picture too!
Complete fantasy, and completely pointless.
I recommend that it be made into a product and named "Tempest".
Wouldn't you just love a computer shaped like a grenade? Talk about a data explosion!
DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
...by just reading the tea-leaves!
This isn't.
It's not that we don't have the technology -- that's only part of it. It's that we don't have the technology, and it's a retarded idea in the first place.
How do I choose what data is "poured"? And once I do so, why do I have to actually watch it being poured? Why is "spilling" better than simply pushing a button on a projector? It looks like a portable holographic multitouch interface, which is very cool -- but WTF is with the coffee concept?
This is more like Ed Land giving his engineers a baseball and telling them to not only build an instant camera that size, but in that shape, and instead of pressing a shutter button, you throw it at what you're trying to take a picture of. It's an interesting idea, by why would you want to ever use it? And who would pay for someone to design it?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
It's not that we necessarily can't build it. It's a question of whether it's a good idea.
It's not a question of whether we'll ever have tactile holograms. The more relevant question is, WTF is with the coffee cup metaphor?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
You're Doing It Wrong
Holograms don't work that way. Making a free floating in-the-air hologram is impossible with current technology. There are ways to 'curve' light a little using interference, but nothing to produce a full volumetric display that isn't backed by a LCD or film panel somewhere.
This is just another one of those dumb 'concepts' that ignores the impossibility of the technology.
Well, there is one way to make free-floating pictures in the air, but it involves using a laser to ionize strips/points of air, and it isn't something you can fit in a cup, or want to look at directly.
I...Drink your milkshake! I DRINK IT UP!
... from an iCup "computer" to a Talkie Toaster.
Unless the iCup can read the tea leaves and predict your future, this must be the worst UI paradigm ever.
There is nothing intuitive about this because it doesn't relate to how our brains work.
Colorful moving imagery on a vertical surface that fills the field of view = yes.
Tactile responsive interface = yes.
Enhancing and bringing the two closer together = YES.
This cup is very creative, original, and even interesting enough to be worthy of a post, but not remotely practical.
But it does take you out of the box far enough to consider: what other objects would be more suitable as metaphorical hosts for a futuristic computer?
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ToiletComputer
The method consists in extracting of soluble substances in dried tea leaf, containing in a porcelain or earthenware pot, by means of freshly boiling water, pouring of the liquor into a white porcelain or earthenware bowl, examination of the organoleptic properties of the infused leaf, and of the liquor with or without milk or both. Cracking organoleptics, Gromit.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
I almost feel that they are infringing upon my idea. I've already mailed it to myself in writing so a lawsuit may soon follow. The idea is for a computer shaped like a toilet. To get information...
"I guess I'm gonna fade into Bolivian."
... hand grenades that look like soda cans.
MIT OCW
There's a course on this sorta thing from 5 years ago...
For gods sake, you even "squirt" data!
Betcha Ballmer's got the chair version
---
I'm sure two girls could work out what to do with it.
ogglelog
Still waiting for the handgun/usb drive combo to cut down on gadgets
I've just created more designs with my digital camera and photoshop. They are: ...
* remote control computer: you can point it to others to share data
* beer bottle computer: you can share data in a friendly environment by clunking it against other beer bottles
* ear plug computer: it uploads data to your main bed computer whilst you are asleep through your skin
* "Wild Pig" Merlot computer: you use the rubber cap to put the data into a newer computer if necessary
* Fight Club DVD computer
Darn, I need to clean up this place.
I like my novelty crap cheap and cheerful. Seeing as this is fantasy land though... I could possible see the cup as a thin client to a serious computer (which would of course look like a salad bowl or something).
that Pamela Andreson is Hot after tasting few of her bits.
now that they are working on phones with projection capability, maybe in a couple of years a small device like N810 will not only have wimax but also have built-in projector.
Announced on April 1, right?