Intel crams four displays into one PC
Main LCD, plus three touchscreen OLEDs
Intel has upped the ante concerning the number of displays fitted into a laptop, by powering a machine with four separate screens.
Intel's Tangent Bay concept laptop has three OLED screens
Credit: Crave
Laptops with small secondary screens integrated into the keyboard half aren’t uncommon. But the Intel-powered laptop has – in addition to the main LCD display - three small screens built into an area just above the keyboard.
All three screens use OLED technology and support multi-touch, various online reports have stated.
Display videos on one and pictures on the others
It’s unknown whether each of the three miniature screens has a designated purpose, but pictures appear to show one being used to control the PC itself and another to display multimedia content.
The Intel-powered PC – codenamed Tangent Bay – is still just a proof of concept, for now. ®
COMMENTS
Why three more?
Surely you could just have one long, thin, screen to divide as you wish?
@Tony72: I think there's more mileage in that concept myself -- Imagine being able to switch the keyboard from qwerty to classic azerty to dvorak to Nordic...
Like most IT "breakthroughs..."
It's a solution looking for a problem.
Virtual Desktops
Could be a nice way to implement virtual desktops, with the other three being displayed on the mini screens?
Interesting
those who cry "what's the point in so many screens?" clearly aren't power users.
I have 3 widescreen LCDs on my work machine, and it's still not enough for all the systems I'm managing and monitoring.
At home I have 3 LCDs, and a projector (cloned off the centre screen). Middle screen is used for central activities (movies, games, net etc.) while my two 'wing mirrors' are used for utils such as volume control, music players, task manager, download managers etc.
So, yes, I can see a point to more screen acreage.
As for battery? OLED screes are significantly more efficient than LCDs, and running them constantly would have less impact than accessing a CD/DVD for just a few minutes.
No, where I become sceptical is the touchscreen element. Not entirely sure how well it would work on a screen that small. Even the Iphone has a bigger screen than that, and touch only JUST works.
You would have to be very careful designing the UI.
3 more screens eh?
Hmm... great. Maybe when I get another 3 pairs of eyes. Or maybe I should get another head like Zaphod.
