Think touch screens are one of the biggest innovations of the past decade? As it turns out, that concept has been available to consumers longer than a lot of you reading this have been alive.
The MS DOS-powered HP-150 allowed users to maneuver around a very basic monotone interface. The screen was surrounded by a series of infrared emitters and detectors which would be able to roughly place any non-transparent object near the screen. The divots were often known to get clogged with dust, making the “touchscreen” unworkable. The touchscreen was later dropped as a standard feature in later incarnations before being dropped as a feature all together.
After the jump, check out some footage from the gripping television program: Computer Chronicles. The clip wasn’t of note just because of the forward-looking (if ultimately flopping) attempt on the part of HP, but check out how wound-up these guys are. They’re techies, but they’re all at least in their mid-30s and wearing suits. That sort of behavior just wouldn’t be acceptable in today’s tech world.
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