Smartphones and tablets have shown us that people love to interact with digital media in intuitive ways. Meanwhile, the rise of 3D printing and modeling are about to bring about a creative revolution the likes of which we’ve never seen before. HP wants to stay relevant in this future and generation by making… a huge Nintendo 3DS. Seriously though, the HP Sprout is an interesting vision for the PC of the future.
Along with its 23″ 1080p touch-sensitive monitor, the Sprout also comes with a 20″ capacitive touch mat. The mat is designed to be used in a variety of ways, most of them involving the Sprout’s several eyes up top. There’s a projector, a 14.6MP camera and 3D camera that can also scan 2D images. It still has USB ports and runs Windows 8.1, so I’m pretty sure you can still use it with a keyboard and mouse.
The idea is for Sprout to encourage the development of software that not only allows people to interact with the computer using intuitive gestures but to take physical objects and incorporate them in digital processes. As shown in the video above and in this much longer demo video, this can be anything from scanning objects and turning them into vector graphics, scanning books for quick editing and copying and of course scanning objects for 3D modeling or printing.
So again, it looks like a PC for the future, or at least the near future. Which is why I find it weird that HP is selling it right now, when the infrastructure isn’t here yet. Order a Sprout from HP starting at $1,900 (USD) if you’re that excited. Or if you’re a scanlator.
[via CNET]
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