Meet the 'Nintendo DS' for Grown-ups

[btarunr]

There was a time I remember when owning a laptop used to be a status-symbol, affluent people despite little (or no) computer literacy owned one. A lot of factors decided the price of those things, the most important being the cost of producing LCD displays, compact hard drives and more importantly, the batteries. In came competition, the computer reached many hands, literacy rose, developing economies rose and with it, the laptop changed from being ‘a machine’ to ‘a gadget’. Laptops are in all shapes an sizes, all forms and prices these days, and with the introduction of the ULPC concept, a laptop or better still, a portable computer is soon becoming a standard issue for every person a-là mobile phone or wrist watch. What’s the next step? The answer lays in a neat new concept design by V12 Designs called the Canova, which resembles the popular handheld gaming device, the Nintendo DS in essence of having two screens. Both screens are touch-sensitive LCDs, where one of them morphs into a human-interface (keyboard and track-pad cluster):



The device comes with an active stylus, and of course, handwriting recognition. Since you’re not pressing real buttons, there’s lack of tactile-feedback. The device could also have a microphone and voice recognition. This device can transform into a writing pad / sketch-pad or even an electronic newspaper:



Understandably the tactile mechanism of this device should be very sensitive, a boon for designers and artists, for they can use its stylus on the bottom screen while visualizing it on the main screen. Valerio Cometti, the founder and managing director of the Italian firm that designs this device says: “it was developed for creative types, such as artists.”



From a 2008 setting this device looks a bit science fiction but in reality it isn’t too far-sighted, looking at how designs such as the Apple iPhone took off. The designers pitched this concept to laptop manufacturers who took great interest in it. In his interview to Laptop Magazine Cometti states that it could be as low as 16 months before he could prepare a product suitable for the US markets. Apparently an American company is co-developing this with V12 Designs. This concept can become reality by 2010.
Case closed:



Bello!

Source: Laptop magazine

[mlupple]

That IS cool! Ciao bello!

[ShadowFold]

I'm 16 and I want one

[Megasty]

This is a "in the bag" item. If they make it, I will buy it.

[farlex85]

Now if nintendo would actually make one of these so I could play some nintendo games on a sweet lappy like that, I will be very happy. Unlikely though.

[MopeyMartian]

Ahhhhhh...

Now this is what many of us have been reading about a waiting for with bated breath.

[qwerty_lesh]

speaking of the olpc, wasnt one of the second concepts similar to this?

[Mussels]

that'd make a handy little 'laptop' for communication purposes.

i wonder what the specs are.

[candle_86]

my god, its a reprogramable user interface system, i want one, and i want to put L'Cars on it woot.

[xubidoo]

looks a cool gadget to me ,worth getting simply for gadget value

[Megasty]

They better hurry up & get this out before we all forget about it. Something like this is quite near that fantasy level

[Cold Storm]

That is right Megasty! You all ways see these types of sweet looking things, but they all ways seem to come out 50 years later!

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Cold Storm

That is right Megasty! You all ways see these types of sweet looking things, but they all ways seem to come out 50 years later!

when you get the sneak peeks from working with companies, you see them even earlier... i waited around 4 years (under NDA) for the proXstream series and at least 6 months earlier than everyone else i knew about the cryoZ, and man did they change from the first test units.

Tech is fun watching it evolve

[chron]

holy moly. now lets get a version thats thinner than a razr phone and i'll buy it...

[Cold Storm]

Originally Posted by Mussels

when you get the sneak peeks from working with companies, you see them even earlier... i waited around 4 years (under NDA) for the proXstream series and at least 6 months earlier than everyone else i knew about the cryoZ, and man did they change from the first test units.

Tech is fun watching it evolve

Man, I wish I had a job like that! But, I am loving what I do now.. lol.. Cooking for a living FTW!

But, I bet for those 6 months it just ate at you not to tell, to many, people about it.

[Mussels]

Originally Posted by Cold Storm

Man, I wish I had a job like that! But, I am loving what I do now.. lol.. Cooking for a living FTW!

But, I bet for those 6 months it just ate at you not to tell, to many, people about it.

oh i got to talk, just only to OCZ. but yeah it was fun times