Final yr, Lenovo confirmed off a fantastically futuristic idea gadget known as Venture Crystal, which was the world’s first laptop computer to function a clear MicroLED show. However immediately, in what has turn into a practice for Lenovo throughout IFA, the corporate is again with one more demo pocket book, this time geared up with a motorized rotating hinge.
Dubbed the Auto Twist AI PC, Lenovo’s newest idea appears nearly precisely like a standard clamshell when closed. Nevertheless, with a easy voice command, its lid raises routinely and rotates into virtually any place — even all the best way round into pill mode. Whereas there is no such thing as a official pricing, and even plans to deliver the machine to full manufacturing simply but, Lenovo says the Auto Twist is designed to offer enhanced adaptability, improved ergonomics and probably higher safety. However for now, the corporate’s primary aim is just to see what environments or use instances may be capable of finest benefit from a laptop computer with this sort of novel design.
Because of built-in object monitoring, for instance, the Auto Twist can transfer its show and comply with folks as they stroll round a room, which might be very useful when making displays. It may additionally detect an individual’s physique, and probably even their posture, earlier than transferring its show into the perfect place to scale back fatigue or pressure.
Alternatively, the laptop computer can detect when it’s not getting used after which shut its personal lid to forestall undesirable customers from gaining entry. And whereas the Auto Twist’s AI tag feels a bit spurious, Lenovo hopes the laptop computer will be capable of do a lot of these items by itself or by means of easy pure language voice management (the laptop computer at the moment helps instructions to remodel into laptop computer mode, clamshell mode and extra).
After seeing it in particular person, probably the most instant use case that got here to my thoughts was in POS (point-of-sale) cost terminals. Right here, staff usually must manually flip a display screen round in order that the shopper can see their whole or add in issues like a tip. Granted, the Auto Twist does seem to be overkill in that state of affairs contemplating how simple it’s to rotate a display screen across the old style means together with your arms a primary hinge. And a minimum of from what I noticed, the built-in motor wasn’t fairly as clean as you’d in all probability need for industrial purposes. However, it’s an fascinating concept with potential for high-end luxurious shops.
Then there’s simply the enjoyable of it. Throughout my demo, I watched because the Auto Twist performed a clip of a dancer as its motorized hinge tried to make its show match the particular person’s actions. I additionally noticed the laptop computer swivel its show horizontally to current an ultra-wide panoramic picture in a extra participating means. Moreover, whereas different bleeding-edge tech like laptops with foldable shows undergo from a ton of added weight and bulk, the rotating servo on Lenovo’s newest idea is comparatively unobtrusive and there isn’t a big impact on the machine’s total portability.
So whereas it stays to be seen how helpful the Auto Twist actually is or what it’d flip into down the road, I respect that Lenovo remains to be attempting to provide you with new methods to evolve the basic clamshell laptop computer.
