What comes AFTER the Apple Tablet? Here’s one display

by Robert Scoble on January 27, 2010

OK, the rumors are already FLOWING in about the Apple tablet. I’m putting the best news up on my Twitter Favorite’s feed, so you can see the latest photos from Engadget and the latest reports from pundits and others (some of whom claim that they have had the Apple Tablet for a few days now in order to be able to talk to the press about it).

But, no matter what, the Apple tablet will have a physical screen. Tonight, one company, Light Blue Optics (they are on Twitter too), visited my house and showed me a new screen that does not need a physical screen. It projects on any surface and even includes touch capabilities. How does it do that? In the video CTO Dr. Adrian Cable, explains how the technology works (it paints infrared light over the surface and a camera sees when your fingers disturb that curtain of light).

You really need to see this demoed. Take this three to five years out and you can see that we’re going to get some wild new computing experiences that can wrap around curved surfaces, or, even, display on your arm or wall.

  • hd
    sixthsense = opensource = good
    Light Bluet Optics = windows + flash = bad

    http://www.pranavmistry.com/projects/sixthsense/
  • Stephen
    'Yes but what were they thinking when they decided to call it the "iPad"?
    Perhaps it's a UK thing, but a pad is a sanitary towel used by incontinent people.
    Would you want to touch those?'
    Stewart- Ever thought of buying a dictionary and extending your knowledge of multiple definitions?
  • Wow.. it's awesome. I guess I've seen some kinda projection based virtual keyboard in red laser beam on a desk, but it's hugely improved now. If someone calls this the present, then "hologram" based virtual computing will be the future! :)
  • stewartgaskell
    An still no Flash support? Yup, lame.
  • stewartgaskell
    Yes but what were they thinking when they decided to call it the "iPad"?
    Perhaps it's a UK thing, but a pad is a sanitary towel used by incontinent people.
    Would you want to touch those?
  • Christopher Coulter
    More Sony Reader or Kindle than Tablet. Big iPod touch, consumer market yadda yadda....Microsoft Tablets are still Vertical/Enterprise safe, if dreadfully boring.

    Not much differing over the Elk Grove prototypes, hardwarewise, just a better touch-apps-eReading infrastructure of sorts, they built the roads and then introduced the car, reverse of Microsoft.

    Really, I called this first, ask Robert Williams... :)
  • Amazing technology. The old cliche comes to mind 'it's only limit is our imagination' I see no end of applications aswell as a great void then we dont yet envisage where this technology will come to fruition.
    Saying that, that fellow drove me mad every time he started a sentence with the word 'So' Far too American, we Brits don't like that word play.lol
    OK! Time to go tableting!
  • Microvision (Nasdaq:MVIS) is launching their SHOWWX mobile picoprojector in march in the USA, see this movie to get an idea http://youtube.com/watch?v=MQZeri_zRPk

    Looks really promising
  • worth a look at Pictionaire also - a large table that brings together physical and digital objects

    http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2010/0...
  • 4 times bigger? Nice =) Also, I can't keep an A3 size paper on my lap and work comfortably. In such cases people would prefer smaller sizes. They're working on that too? (lets says 5-6 inches?)
  • Yeah, Would love to see a mini projector, people would prefer smaller sizes, something like the size of a cellphone.

    Awesome technology, But I would like to point out a similiar device by Pranav Mistry called the Sixth sense
  • @LightBlueOptics Interesting, but what is the maximum and minimum screen size it can project to?
  • We pointed it at my wall and in low light it can get about four times bigger than it is on my table. They are working on other projectors, though, to support bigger sizes. The one he bought to my house is locked at the size you see it in the video.
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