Concept Computer Based on a Tea Cup Design

webarnold writes "A new concept computer is being designed to look like a tea cup. Using holographic projectors, view your data inside the cup, 'spilled' onto the table, or transfer it to other Cup PC users by pouring data into their cup." Acceptance of something like this seems a bit far-fetched given current tech, but no nomad-space comparisons are being made.

This story is stupid

[jandrese]

So it's talking about a piece of hardware we can't even build (last time I shopped for holographic projectors that can be embedded in a ceramic cup they were hard to find) that has a user interface nobody would want (how do you choose what data is transfered?) on a product that will never be built. Sounds like a real winner of a story. I guess it employed some graphic artist for like half a day, so that's something.

The Future Looks Bright

[BigBlueOx]

I said give the tea to Jackson Roykirk! Jackson Roykirk you half-brained silicon tard-bucket!

Ster-il-ize

Ster-il-ize

Re:Infinite improbability machine created...

[eldavojohn]

I would like to point out the icon [dvice.com] in the upper right of the page. It reads "Powered by Sci-Fi" and has the Sci-Fi channel logo.

Something gives me good reason to believe this is a graphical artist's concept and nothing more.

I'm reminded of Sci-Fi's viral marketing videos of a woman in an airplane seeing a UFO ...

Instant destruction

[Toe, The]

Just what the average computer user needs: something that will encourage and beckon them to pour liquid into their computer.

Try telling me that's not gonna happen.

Yawn

[El Cabri]

So much time and energy wasted trying to come up with fancy data processing metaphors that refer to "intuitive" concepts and situations... Like if educated adults were retarded children and needed to be spoonfed some special way of handling their environment so that they don't find it too challenging. This is mostly useless, the signal/noise in this kind of "breakthrough" research is historically one order of magnitude lower that what valuable R&D dollars are supposed to be spent for.

99.99% of what we take for granted today in data manipulation ergonomics is incremental improvements brought about by REAL experts in ergonomics who observe REAL people using REAL computers.

Re:Infinite improbability machine created...

[Gat0r30y]

And there in lies the most disastrous design flaw. I can't be bothered to notice that it is a computer that just looks like a coffee cup before my first cup.

Outside the Box

[trongey]

Sure this is a bit over-the-top, but it's exactly the kind of breakaway thinking that can lead to something good. Stuff like this is what's required to get away from the beige box computer mentality (even if the boxes are sometimes camouflaged to look like some other color of box, or flattened out so they look like a pad or a table). Not to mention that it actually sounds kind of like a fun way to handle certain tasks.

They laughed at Edwin Land

[nbauman]

I am sorely disappointed by the negative responses to this article.

Is this Slashdot? You sound like a bunch of klutzes who wouldn't know how to get into their cars if they locked the keys inside. Who wouldn't know how to fix their glasses if the frames broke.

It's called a concept. Ed Land, the founder of Polaroid, gave his engineers a block of wood small enough to fit into a back pocket, and told them to build an instant camera that size. And they didn't whine about how the technology wasn't ready for it, they built it! And that camera revolutionized p0rn.

If you can't build a holographic projector inside a teacup with $50 worth of parts, get out of the way for somebody who can.

Polaroid was a good idea.

[SanityInAnarchy]

This isn't.

It's not that we don't have the technology -- that's only part of it. It's that we don't have the technology, and it's a retarded idea in the first place.

How do I choose what data is "poured"? And once I do so, why do I have to actually watch it being poured? Why is "spilling" better than simply pushing a button on a projector? It looks like a portable holographic multitouch interface, which is very cool -- but WTF is with the coffee concept?

This is more like Ed Land giving his engineers a baseball and telling them to not only build an instant camera that size, but in that shape, and instead of pressing a shutter button, you throw it at what you're trying to take a picture of. It's an interesting idea, by why would you want to ever use it? And who would pay for someone to design it?

cellphone with projector more practical

[momotarosan]

now that they are working on phones with projection capability, maybe in a couple of years a small device like N810 will not only have wimax but also have built-in projector.