Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Latest By
Category:
Armor
Artificial
Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual
Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work
"The primary attraction [of writing sf] is the sheer pleasure of creating something from whole cloth."
- Dan Simmons
 |
| Prime Radiant | ||
| A projector that puts all of a vast collection of writings on the wall of a special conference room. You could interact with it by writing on the wall; changes were stored. |
Why don't they have this kind of projector in conference rooms? One particularly nifty aspect of this device was that people who stood before it cast no shadow, despite the fact that it seemed to radiate from a single device in the middle of the room. You could interact with it (change the content) by writing directly on the wall of the room. Teachers from the old school might appreciate being able to write directly on the "slide" and have it saved automatically for the next time they gave the lecture.
| The long walls of the room glowed to life. Finally, the fine neatly printed equations in black, with an occasional red hairline that wavered through the darker forest like a staggering rillet.
They stood together in the light. Each wall was thirty feet long, and ten high. The writing was small and covered every inch. "This is not the whole Plan," said the First Speaker. "To get it all upon both walls, the individual equations would have to be reduced to microscopic size - but that is not necessary..." ...The student pointed a finger and as he did so, the line of equations marched down the wall, until the single series of functions he had thought of - one could scarcely have believed that the quick, generalized gesture of the finger to have been sufficient - was at eye-level. |
| Technovelgy from Second Foundation,
by Isaac Asimov. Published by Doubleday in 1953 Additional resources -
|
I wonder if this sort of projector and screen might lend itself to extended work, as opposed to ordinary terminals, on which one is forced to scroll much more often.
I've seen various kinds of electronic whiteboards. I believe that some of them allow at least minimal interaction between the board and the application that projects images upon it. For example, you could press the pen upon a section of the screen to move ahead to the next page.
Comment/Join this discussion ( 2 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |
Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Second Foundation
More Ideas
and Technology by Isaac Asimov
Tech news articles related to Second Foundation
Tech news articles related to works by Isaac Asimov
Prime Radiant-related
news articles:
- Dynamic Agenda Wallpaper Glows With Your Achievements
- AI's Now Being Taught Anger
- Piper, Google's 2 Billion Line Code Repository, Needs A Cool Display
| Transparent 4K OLED Wireless TV From LG |
| DOTPad Braille Device Offers Live Access |
| Transparent MicroLED Screen From Samsung |
| Augmented Reality Book Covers Reveal The Inner Book |
Want to Contribute an
Item?
It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a
quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add
it here.
| <Previous | Next> |
|
|
|
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Science Fiction Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
|
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
'Their only check on the growth and development of Vulcan 3 lay in two clues: the amount of rock thrown up to the surface... and the amount of the raw materials and tools and parts which the computer requested.'
'I guess there's nobody round this table who doesn't have a Crosswell [tapeworm] working for him in the small intestine.'
'Figments of his mind in one sense, of course, for he had shaped them...'
'So the parent drone carries a spotter that it launches...'
'...nurse drones that would cruise around dumping large amounts of power into randomly selected pods.'
'It's done with a flip of the third joint of the tentacle on the down beat.'
'...for months Grantline bores had dug into the cliff.'
'I hope all those other cars are on automatic,' he said anxiously.
'It’s smart enough to go wrong in very complicated ways, but not smart enough to help us find out what’s wrong.'
