Thứ Bảy, 1 tháng 6, 2019

Intel dreams of the PC's future: 'Ambient PCs,' fancy fabrics, and a monster dual-display gaming rig

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Intel showed off its dual-screen "Tiger Rapids" concept PC last year at Computex. This year, dual-screen laptops became reality. Now, it's on to the next innovation: the Ambient PC, based around an "edge display" that will allow you to interact with your laptop without even opening it.

That's not to say that Intel doesn't continue to innovate in dual-screen PCs. Its "Honeycomb Glacier" concept PC puts an additional rectangular screen above the keyboard—then lifts it and the conventional display on an upward hinge. Intel also continued the trend set by HP's leather-bound and wood PCs by showing off some fabric-clad, dual-screen displays with "Twin Rivers".

All told, Intel's concept PCs appear to be well received by PC vendors, who are using the innovative designs to dispel the idea that the PC is dying. Let's dig in. 

The Ambient PC

What Intel is calling the Ambient PC looks somewhat familiar—imagine a Galaxy Note Edge, but as a laptop. That should give you an idea of what the Ambient PC looks like while closed: a thin, curved sheet of glass pokes out, with just enough room for a row of icons.

intel ambient pc 2 Mark Hachman / IDG

Intel's Ambient PC.

That sheet of glass is a touchscreen, however, and when I touched the icons small apps seemed to launch. A calendar opened up a sliding row of blocked-out appointments and their times; when I touched the Spotify icon, I could hear faint music push its way out of the laptop's speakers. (None of the speakers appeared to be exposed to the outside world, which meant that the audio was a bit muffled.)

That's not all, though. Inside the Ambient PC laptop lurks an array of far-field microphones, which triggered Amazon's Alexa when another user spoke a wake word.

Intel ambient pc 3 Mark Hachman / IDG

The Intel Ambient PC's "home screen".

A more interesting development is Intel's decision to include an ambient, 360-degree camera. Folded shut, what you might ordinarily think of a "rear-facing" camera instead points upward. Intel executives said that the camera is in fact a 360-degree camera, so that when a user approaches the laptop, it can identify them via Windows Hello's facial recognition and automatically log them in, presumably so that they could then access the calendar and other applications.

In a world where computer vendors build privacy shutters into business PCs, the 360-degree camera was an interesting choice.



PCWorld News

Read more useful articles at: Tech Deeps

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