You may not need a briefcase to carry your laptop in the near feature. Just roll the computer and wear it like a shoulder handbag.
Orkin Design, a design firm in Germany, has created a amazing concept computer that can be used both as a laptop and a tablet (slate). It features a large multitouch screen, USB ports, webcam, stylus and everything that you probably look for in a computer.
[Video] The Future “All-in-One” Computer
The sad part, you can only experience this flexible laptop in a video and we don’t know if any of the hardware companies are actually working on such a design. As one commenter points out:
Its an interesting concept, but It is probably a long ways from any sort of actual prototype. Forget DVD drives, what about Circuit boards! They would need to find a new material instead of the current silicon, as circuit boards today cant withstand much flexibility.
I know simple circuit boards are flexible (hence rollup keyboards), but I have yet to see a flexible motherboard that supports the required watts/current of a modern chipset and processor.
Thanks Joe Hicks from Tokyo for sharing this video.
Find this article at: http://labnol.org/?p=12862
Reader Comments
One day soon they’ll just implant chips into our skulls and we’ll pull up our HUD screen on a visor so we can browse while driving (our hover craft).
Better yet, tattoo bar codes on our forearms and we can just wheel our groceries out to the car and have card automatically charged as we glide through from shelf to parking lot. What a wonderful world it’ll be.
Written by Todd Hawkins on 02.26.10
From the video it appears that the computer is articulated versus something flat. As such, circuit boards could be located within the “slats’ and connected by ribbon wire. As far as a DVD drive goes, just about anything can be put on a flash drive or use an external drive.
Written by Pat Gannon on 02.26.10
It Seems like Yesterday the handheld calculator appeared on the scene.WOW look how far we have came,the new role up computer is quite amazing. How close are we to the voice activated computer. Star Trek here we come!
Written by JLee Jones on 02.26.10
@Todd Hawkins :D:D..!! lol.. It may happen! ;)
Written by kripssmart on 02.28.10
uuuh.. it still has a keyboard! Reason no one is working on this is because the idea of a roll up computer has already been sent to the school of ‘go back and do it again’. fyi flexible circuits do exist and are being developed for fabrics and paper. Does this site do no research before posting articles?
Written by Milander on 02.28.10
The roll up device is just a display, the keyboard is a virtual one, like what you see on smart phones, no actual keys and the electronics are in the central tower system. I’d heard that flexible displays are already being readied for the market and see nothing else in this video that can not be done using today’s technologies.
Written by Rakesh on 03.01.10
I think it’s not a bad idea, besides external devices like a ultra slim dvd player would be suitable for it. Looking into better ways of improving on technology refering to the designs of our CPU’s and laptops is an excellent decision. I wouldn’t mind if this was for real.
Written by Ruel on 03.01.10