NEC Pushes the
Envelope with a New Design for Computing
By John N. Latta
Wave 0351 02/20/04
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The world of personal computing is driven by meeting quarterly numbers and satisfying the street. Moore’s Law drives expectations for performance. The size of personal devices is determined by display sizes – notebook, tablet, PDA and some would like the watch. This a nice neat package of how computing can be expressed. Right? Wrong. At ITU Telecom World we got a sample of another view by NEC. It is based on the pen and called P-ISM. This concept is so radical that we went to Tokyo to learn more. The design concept uses five different pens to make a computer. One pen is a CPU, another a camera, one creates a virtual keyboard, another projects the visual output and thus the display and another a communicator (a phone). All five pens can rest in a holding block which recharges the batteries and holds the mass storage. Each pen communicates wireless, possibly Bluetooth. During our visit at NEC headquarters in Tokyo, Japan we spoke with its designer Toru Ichihash. In developing this concept he asked himself – “What is the future of IT when it is small?” The pen was a logical choice. He also wanted a product that you could touch and feel. Further, the intent is to allow for an office anywhere. Ichihashi-son used as inspiration James Bond and the future of what technology could be. But Ichihashi-son stated that this is closer to reality than what appears in the 007 movies. A summary of the design components, its functions and his assessment of the realizability is in the table below.
The keyboard is done using technology by Canesta. http://www.canesta.com/ During our meeting I was shown the only sample built – it is quite elegant. Each of the keyboard and display pens have their own “legs” that allow the pens to remain erect to project the virtual keyboard and the display onto a surface. To make just this sample costs $30,000. The design paradigm in P-ISM is quite different than a notebook, PDA or even a cell phone. Each of these are self-defining by their shape and form factor which is one integrated unit. This is good and bad. It is good in that if the unit can be positioned or held the way it is defined it works well. The bad aspect is that all like units are just that – alike. While what the P-ISM seeks to do is to create a new form factor based on the individual user. However, this has its own compromises – a surface is needed to make it functional. What is important about P-ISM is that it challenges the notion of what is a personal computing device in a form factor which begins as a pen but is much more. Yet to be explored in the P-ISM concept is: OS considerations Ichihashi-son acknowledged that two key issues are: Cost When asked what he would like to see happen with P-ISM Ichihashi-son has 3 objectives: 1 – For NEC to make this as a product or with partners that would license the IP. 2 – That the concept would help promote NEC as a leader in products and technology. 3 – The NEC Design team would be seen as a leading design organization. Based on our visit we would certainly agree with 3. P-ISM will be shown at CeBIT. |
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