Most new devices rely on a single innovation as their selling point, but HP’s Sprout AIO PC is more than that. It ditches some of peripherals we’re all too familiar with, and replaces them with some spectacular accessories.
First of all, HP Sprout gets rid of the mouse and keyboard, thinking that while for gamers such peripherals are essential, artists could very well do without. As a replacement, Hewlett Packard equipped this AIO PC with a 20-point capacitative touchmat. Just in case you’re not that comfortable to typing on a flat surface, a chiclet keyboard is also included in the pack.
Secondly, HP Sprout features a built-in projector and four cameras. By using it the Sprout Illuminator, as this entire gizmo is called, artists can easily transpose physical things into the digital world. All this couldn’t have been possible with an Intel RealSense 3D camera, which features a 14.6 mega-pixel sensor. The chip maker’s plans to equip smartphones and tablets in 2015 needed to be somehow exhibited in a bigger format.
As soon as the 2D or 3D objects are scanned, they are displayed on the 23″ Full HD touchscreen display, which I assume is an IPS panel. From there on, artists are able to manipulate the objects as they desire. However, the touchmat can be used for more than just editing photographies. It can also mimic musical instruments such as pianos, enabling people to play their tunes right in front of their computer.
HP will obviously launch some software to complement all this revolutionary hardware, but I think that as far as playing piano goes, the Sprout AIO takes away some of the magic. The Sprout Marketplace, as the dedicated app store will be called, is in fact just a storefront for the Windows 8.1 Marketplace featuring only the apps that are compatible with this AIO.
In terms of technical specs, the HP Sprout packs an Intel Haswell CPU with the integrated Intel HD4600 GPU and a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT 745A graphics card with a 2GB DDR3 RAM. In case the standard 8GB of RAM are not enough, users can opt for 16GB instead. The 1TB hard-drive should be sufficient for storing edited photos, but not much else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBnf_lHxPdE
HP Sprout will be available to purchase on November 9, starting at $1,899.99 in Best Buy and Microsoft Stores.
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