You may have heard about pen-based computing, but I guarantee you haven't heard about pens-based computing. Yes, pens, plural. Your old pocket protector will never be the same again.
I'm not talking about toys like the Fly Pentop Computer, which is actually pretty cool, but about a prototype of a real, full-featured computer comprised entirely of transmogrified pens.
Alert SNS Reader and Hall of Fame Member Bill Lehnertz strikes yet again with a pointer to this amazing prototype computer. Here's what he sent me:
---- What do you think these are?
Look closely n' guess what they could be...
Any wild guesses now?
No clue?
Ladies and gentlemen... congratulations!
You have just now looked into the future...
You have seen something that would replace your PC in the near future....
In the revolution of miniature computers, the scientists are ahead with Bluetooth technology...
See the forthcoming computers within our pockets
This pen sort of instrument produces both the monitor as well as the keyboard on flat surfaces from where you can just carry out the normal operations you do on your desktop.
Because you never know these days, I checked this out at the Urban Legend Reference Pages, your first stop in debunking anything that smells fishy. Sure enough, this is a real development.
Turns out this is a really OLD innovation, having been shown at the 2003 ITU Telecom World exhibition held in Geneva! That's a whole two years ago! Here's the NEC blurb on the project, weirdly and unfortunately named PISM:
P-ISM :
A Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package
It seems that information terminals are infinitely getting smaller. However, we will continue to manipulate them with our hands for now. We have visualized the connection between the latest technology and the human, in a form of a pen. P-ISM is a gadget package including five functions: a pen-style cellular phone with a handwriting data input function, virtual keyboard, a very small projector, camera scanner, and personal ID key with cashless pass function. P-ISMs are connected with one another through short-range wireless technology. The whole set is also connected to the Internet through the cellular phone function. This personal gadget in a minimalistic pen style enables the ultimate ubiquitous computing.
There's a bunch of other cool gadgets on their showcase page.
The P-ISM prototype cost a whopping $30,000, so it's not going to replace your boat anchor anytime soon. It's based on some technology from Canesta, which seems to have de-emphasized their virtual keyboard technology in favor of some cool-looking machine perception tech.
NEC doesn't seem to have made any strides toward commercializing this concept, at least not publicly. But what I want to know is . . . does it have to run Windows?
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Comments: 3
I have seen the virtual keyboard idea before -- they have those available already. It seems like a great option for certain types of people (those who must work in sterile environments, for example -- those keyboards are bacteria magnets!) But I have serious ergonomic concerns about keyboarding on a flat surface with nothing to arch my wrist at all. My Powerbook keyboard is flat enough.
Also, I expect that the multi-pen system would have to be somehow condenced into a single unit to commercialize properly -- perhaps they swivels atop a base into which they fold down for easy transport.
Thus, a keyboard projected on a flat, horizontal surface is actually no worse, and possibly better, than a standard keyboard. Of course, there's no give to the surface, and no tactile feedback, so the experience is unlikely to be better than typing on a real keyboard.