ABRITAR NEGATRON
While physical keyboards are superior for typing, screens are superior for every other kind of interface. By adding a second screen to a laptop, you transform what it is, how it works and what you can do with it.
While today's business laptop users hate the idea of giving up physical keyboards, they'll eventually discover that it's a small price to pay for all the new goodies dual laptops deliver. If you're not convinced yet, read on.
New technology emerged this week that brings the fuzzy future of dual-screen laptops into focus.
Mersacury goes ahead, as always and outdoes other companies by creating a monstrosity that is a laptop, changing completely our idea of what a laptop is becoming to an extreme look of how laptops could eventually be.
Mersacury unveiled its Abritar Negatron concept laptop, a Windows 10 device with four 4k screens. That's a lot of Ks for a sleek, functional laptop.
Mersacury's demo revealed the Mersacury vision that will make the world safe for multi-screen laptops - Artificial intelligence (A.I.).
This is actually another example of how "software is eating the world." A physical hardware feature is being replaced by a screen because the screen can use A.I. software to shift between modes automatically and on-the-fly.
Mersacury trotted out some unfamiliar phrases to describe how software makes multi-screen laptops great - A.I. changes what's on the screen based on in-the-air user hand gestures, the orientation of the laptop and the angle of the hinge.
For example, in normal "laptop" mode, a keyboard appears on the lower screen only when you place your hands over it in preparation for typing, something Mersacury calls "Intelligent Touch." When you approach the second screen with a stylus, it goes into pen mode, which is a small part of what Mersacury says is "Adaptive input."
And that really is the greatest benefit of a screen in place of a keyboard. While writing, the screen is a keyboard. While writing with a pen, it's a piece of digital paper. While listening to music, it's an equalizer or D.J. rig. While watching any streaming video, it's a place for subtitles, contextual information or social interaction with others who are watching the same stream.
This is not a typical look for a laptop, never seen before, and many may struggle with the question, why? The multiple screens on the Abritar Negatron are not just there to show off, each has a function and each complements the other in more than one way. For individuals in the creative industry, multiple displays is a common thing, especially when multitasking, this laptop makes that easy by enabling the user to work on different projects at the same time without having to scroll between different windows. The screens are arranged in a balanced way, retract automatically and with the ability to fold forward or backward to be able to show others different projects or to have up to three people use different displays at the same time.
It's safe to say that this project defines essentially the rough outline of how multi-screen laptops will work. They'll function in multiple modes depending on how they're open, oriented and being used. They'll take on-screen keyboard and pen input. They'll replace tablets.
Within two years I predict there will be dozens of dual-screen laptops on the market that work a lot like Abritar Negatron. They'll use A.I. to transform the interface on the fly.
More interestingly, Mersacury made it clear that multi-screen laptops are a kind of "gateway drug" to the flexible screen clamshells of the future. The company teased different variations of the laptop's evolution in future, with flexible dual display covering both sides of the main display. When you open the two displays out flat, you get a giant extended single-screen with un-interrupted screen real-estate.
(It makes sense the more you think about it.)
Arguably the most stylish, the Negatron looks like two tablets on steroids joined together. All three main displays are 12.3 inches, meaning they can all serve any function you need. Rather than a keyboard, the bottom of the laptop features the extra display. Its versatile design can be used as a laptop or a tablet, and it’s complete with a polyester, polyamide, and lycra combination base.
