A Computer Without the Computer

This is a neat thing, I think.

Do you need a physical computer keyboard? Well, what if a lightbulb just projected the image of a keyboard on your desk's top, and detected your fingers' motions along the projected keys?

And as far as viewing pictures: Do you really need a monitor? Wouldn't an image projected from a bulb against a white wall do the trick? (Given a sufficiently high-def projection and a sufficiently clean and reflective wall, of course.)

And with more and more actual computer work being done via the cloud... it's interesting to think that in five years a very "cheap" computer might consist of nothing more than one light-bulb screw-in accessory (for the "keyboard") and one high-def projection bulb (to project all visual content against a white wall or bit of reflective scrim you could roll up like a rag). All computation would be done in a cloud, away from any of the two small physical components.

In ten years the "portable computer" might be nothing but a little laser projector and a roll-up scrim.

posted by Ace at 03:47 PM

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