For an I/O device, the monitor is distinctly lacking user end I. It's also counterintuitive that the computer's face, anthropomorphically speaking, is one way. Computers aren't autistic, so we shouldn't have to treat them as if they are. This leads me to propose the Two Way (or Scanning) Monitor.

The Scanning Monitor projects its output onto fine gauze, which is mounted in a pressure sensitive frame. Images are displayed by normal back projection. The difference here is that when the user wishes to scan a document, they use the more intuitive method of input of pressing the image flat against the computer's face, the monitor. The pressure sensors activate the scanning protocol: projection switches off and a small scanning arm sweeps across and behind the gauze, doing its business.
-- calum, May 16 2005

So this isn't a monitor that has two screens, one on either side? Still, +
-- spiritualized, May 19 2005


Just use telescreens.
-- Aq_Bi, May 19 2005


This sounds ok, but scanners have a cover for a reason.
-- BJS, Jul 18 2007


//Computers aren't autistic//

How are computers not autistic? Do computers spontaneously learn to model the feelings and intentions of others through a process of mimicry of and identification with them, while constructing a finely-tuned sense of their own location and extension in space?

No?

Then, basically, they *are* autistic.

Oh, and next time someone would like me to scan something, I hope they don't press it against my face. :)
-- pertinax, Jul 18 2007


This idea has been tried/experimented with in the real world, but I can't remember who it was or what they called it. It was ages ago that I read about it, and I can't find a link (yet).
-- neutrinos_shadow, Jul 18 2007


I think it's misleading to assume that it's more "intuitive" to use the screen as an input device, and even more so to assume that this would be more convenient.

If I want to look at a screen, it's most convenient if it's facing my. If I want to manipulate something, it's usually more convenient if it's horizontal. This is why we write on horizontal surfaces. It's also why scanners are horizontal, despite the fact that it would be easy (and space-saving) to stand them upright.

The beauty of the screen/keyboard/ mouse combination is that it gives you the best of both worlds: you manipulate things in a conveniently horizontal plane, whilst receiving visual feedback from a conveniently vertical plane. In this sense, it is an improvement over devices which have both input and output in the same plane (eg, pen and paper). I think the same argument goes for scanners, to a degree.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 18 2007



random, halfbakery