Comments: Can it possibly be true that your cumbersome desktop PC — keyboard, monitor, and all — may someday be replaced by a set of pen-like objects that fit neatly in your pocket?

The innovative folks at NEC Design, Ltd. in Tokyo say yes.

The email presentation you have just read is based on an experimental product called the P-ISM, described by NEC designers as a "Pen-style Personal Networking Gadget Package." A prototype of the system, which cost a reported $30,000 to build, was unveiled at ITU Telecom World in 2003.

The concept is outlined as follows on the NEC Design Web site:

We have visualized the connection between the latest technology and the human, in a form of a pen. P-ISM is a gadget package including five functions: a pen-style cellular phone with a handwriting data input function, virtual keyboard, a very small projector, camera scanner, and personal ID key with cashless pass function. P-ISMs are connected with one another through short-range wireless technology. The whole set is also connected to the Internet through the cellular phone function. This personal gadget in a minimalistic pen style enables the ultimate ubiquitous computing.

I should note that the final two images in the presentation have nothing directly to do with the P-ISM. Rather, they depict similar "projection keyboard" technologies offered by companies such as Virtual Devices and VKB, Inc.

Sources and further reading:

NEC Design Showcase
NEC Design, Ltd. Web site

NEC Pushes Envelope with New Design for Computing
Wave Report, 20 February 2004

Projection Keyboards
Micah Alpern, 9 January 2003

Last updated: 12/07/05