THE KEYBOARD WOULD BE EITHER A SLIM MEMBRANE KEYBOARD OR IMPLEMENTED VIRTUALLY BY INCREASING THE

THE KEYBOARD WOULD BE EITHER A SLIM MEMBRANE KEYBOARD OR IMPLEMENTED VIRTUALLY BY INCREASING THE

The Dynabook would be a notebook-sized portable machine with a flat panel display, integrated keyboard and removable storage. Kay was aware that many of the electronic components necessary to build such a machine did not exist but he also knew that the rate of technological progress was such that it was only a matter of time before they would. He had seen some of the earliest work on flat panel display technology during a conference tour of the University of Illinois in 1968 and envisaged the future development of a 1,024 by 1,024 resolution LCD panel. The keyboard would be either a slim membrane keyboard or implemented virtually by increasing the size of the screen so that it covered the entire front face of the machine and fitting it with strain gauges under each corner to create a rudimentary touch screen. In this way the size and position of the keyboard could be changed to suit the application. An existing magnetic tape cartridge or floppy disk unit could be re-engineered for use as a removable storage device by reducing its power requirements to make it suitable for battery operation.

Kay lacked the resources to develop the Dynabook concept. Instead, he made a number of cardboard models which he filled with lead pellets to simulate the weight and feel of the machine. He also described the concept in a series of papers, anticipating that advances in integrated circuit technology would eventually allow such a machine to be manufactured and sold for only $500.

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