My Dream Notebook, SSDs and what they mean for Notebooks, Touch Interfaces and more...

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• strikeback03 - Monday, December 1, 2008 - link

  I'd imagine the keyboard at least will hang on for a while simply because it is better suited to some tasks than other options (at least until the above neural interface is up and running). For example, one reason text messaging is so popular is because you can do so silently from work/class, which is not an option with a voice call.

• RadnorHarkonnen - Friday, November 28, 2008 - link

  Dream notebook and new input devices are both very utopic.
  
  Honestly.
  
  They have tried to substitute KB and mouse for ages. And so far no input device was so successful. Even a on-screen KB can't replace a normal one.
  
  Honestly i think the good old Qwerty will never be replaced. New input methods that might appear will be based on the qwerty model. Will bit be a projected image, or whatever they come up with. They can't break that standard, people's resistivity to new standards is big, and in this one, will be even bigger. This is an input device.
  
  Or we would all be using Linux by now.
  
  Anyway, the perfect net book is one thing. Probably a little bit bigger screen (a 10" should do), with more battery life. And AMD CPU of course (my fanboy part is always strong).
  
  The perfect Laptop ? Well, it exist, it is called to it yourself Desktop. All the performance that you want for a lower pricing :)
  
  I can't see the links here at work, but ill check them when i get home. But just an idea.
  
  Is there really a need for a great variety of notebooks, unless it is the brand selling the "same" stuff over and over with the different carcass ? Because this last netbook boom just reflected the need of the average consumer, on cheap, low power/cost/performance with decent I/O interfaces.That need existed for a long time now. It is just the next step.
  
  Anyway, I'm curious how this will evolve, and as always, it will interesting.
  

• Xavitar - Saturday, November 29, 2008 - link

  As a long time PC Gamer, I am inclined to agree with you on the matter of keyboard and mouse input. What I think you are missing, however, is the next wave in input devices. The real killer app in gaming that we are all waiting for is accurate, grand-scale neural impulse input.
  
  While all of the consumer neural impulse input devices available these days are lackluster in performance (if not in novelty), a lot of the research being done in this area is quite compelling. Already we have people talking without making a sound or moving their mouth, controlling cursors with the impulses in their head, and it won't be long before we are gaming in impulse suits that can pick up our intention to perform motor actions without our limbs physically moving. And no, I am not just talking about signals in the brain, which is a far less developed field of science...
  
  The premise for all this is that just thinking about performing a motion -- whatever it is -- causes the brain to fire signals throughout the body. When you think about moving your arm, your brain sends signals to the muscles in your arms. It is preparing them for action, so to speak, whether you move or not. These impulses are much stronger and easier to decipher, since they are localized, than the impulses that occur in the brain. Already scientists are able to pick up muscular impulses and decode them into meaningful commands.
  
  Controlling these impulses is as natural as simply imagining what you're going to do, and if a game can accurately replicate your nervous premonition in a way that simulates real motion, then that just makes the experience all the more believable to the parts of your brain that are responsible for motor coordination. Now you have not only created an impulse, but you've gotten an expected result. Now it is a closed circuit... And now you can learn to walk, so to speak, just like an infant. Through this means of input and response, our neural paths can literally be trained to be just as dexterous in thought as we are in true motion. Perhaps more so.
  
  The same is true for speech. Each sound we make is generated by our vocal chords, which are manipulated by muscles -- ultimately, by nerve signals. Even if we don't say anything, just thinking words causes these messages to be sent to the nerves. Whether we actually vocalize them or not is a separate process entirely.
  
  Today, in laboratories, scientists are successfully creating measurement devices and computer software that can learn the signatures of these neural impulses. There are people in labs right now speaking synthetically just by thinking the words. This is significant for a number of reasons, but not the least of which is that matching neural signatures has the potential to be much more precise than matching recorded, audible speech (as current dictation software does). For example, how often do you see the word "two" instead of "to" on Anandtech? *grin* Often times, the intent of the speech pattern is clearer on the neural level than it is on the audible. Ever-so-slight inflections can be matched with total accuracy, sometimes inflections that are not even audible.
  
  I saw it on the Science channel, so it must be true. :D Once this technology makes its way into the consumer gaming market, everything will change.
  
  Everything.
  
  Anyway, thanks for the license to dream, Anand.
  
  Feel free to prod Asus about neural impulse research if you're so inclined. :)

• Wino - Thursday, November 27, 2008 - link

  Pie in the sky articles are fun. They challenge us to think and give constructive feedback to product development. More appropriate to the blogs here than say... pictures of a yet to be released case. =P
  
  As to the referenced article, I still don't see the point of notebook gaming. Hardcore gamers can and do still drag their 100lbs. main rigs to LAN parties (which have rapidly declined in utility due to the Internet, this coming from myself who used to run QuakeCon in 99 & 2000). The mini-ATX style boxes fit the bill for a "real" gamer who actually does take their rig from place to place.
  
  The really missing piece of the puzzle for notebook gaming is the killer app (or possibly input device). Think about the utility of a laptop over a desktop: spacial arrangement. A true gaming rig is still tied to a desk, monitor, and typically a room or place set aside for a computer. However, notebooks have the advantage of mobility. The use I see for notebook gaming is something that will drag me out of my office specifically because being on the notebook offers me some form of entertainment I can't get out of gaming from my office. A game that involves people being in different rooms, or arranged in specific ways around a room (circle?). Moving around. Hooked up with cellular cards on a Geocaching like hunt. etc.
  
  Think of the Wii. The Wii's controller makes the system. It's why 30somethings flock to it at house parties. Its the novelty of the input device.
  
  Gaming notebooks need something like that. A reason to be.