Future Tech Predictions

Compenion, Canova, Siafu, Cario. These are a few names of laptops we'll be whining for in 2015. The Compenion concept notebook from Felix Schmidberger in Stuttgart, Germany, has designed a laptop that you just slide up to open. The pair of organic LED panels slide into place next to each other, and the lower panel is the keyboard/scribble pad and the whole thing measures only three-quarters of an inch.

The Canova, notebook or ebook, from V12 Design, is so cool. Using a display and a mechanical keyboard, it has two touch-sensitive displays with the upper screen used for viewing applications, and the lower screen for typing, drawing and jotting notes. But the Canova also lies flat for a larger expanse of working space.

Who needs a screen at all? Designer Jonathan Lucas' eccentric Siafu concept is for the blind and has no screen. Siafu converts images into 3-D shapes created with Magneclay, an oil-based synthetic material that forms shapes in response to electrical fields. You interact with your fingers to feel the bumps and protrusions that pop up, for reading a Braille newspaper, feeling the shape of someone's face or going over a tactile representation of a blueprint. "The idea was to open a new realm of digital interface for the visually impaired by enhancing and even surpassing existing technologies that currently cater to this group," said Lucas.

Imagine a device that is at home in a car, café or hotel desk, and you have Anna Lopez' Cario. Work at your desk or on the move, the Cario is function and fashion. The traditional lid hinge is replaced with a shiny bar that is a carrying handle. It allows the lid to fold up for travel and can be set up like an easel and can also sit on a car's steering wheel. Best of all, when it's locked into the steering wheel, Cario has a microprojector that can show maps, videoconferences and find the closest gas station on the windshield. I want this one! Check out the article for way more info than I can provide here.