Sprout

http://sprout.hp.com/

by perone • 12 years ago

617 162 12 years ago

sprout.hp.com

himanshuy• 12 years ago

Video does not play on safari.

ponyous2• 12 years ago

Same in FF.

Edit: Only primary Call to Action doesn't load the video. I got it to load when I randomly clicked on something. Here is a link: http://bcove.me/gqbyor0d

FlyingLawnmower• 12 years ago

Interesting -- it played fine for me on FF.

superuser2• 12 years ago

I still can't tell what Sprout is.

ponyous2• 12 years ago

Yup, same here. Video doesn't load, and I'm not gonna take N minutes just to figure out what am I looking at.

thrwy10• 12 years ago

Same here and I took the full tour. For some reason the camera has to go around the device to show me the touch mat and from there it goes all the way around to tell me that the display is touch screen. Why does it have to keep going around the device? beats me!

zecg• 12 years ago

I clicked specs, saw "Operating system: Windows 8.1" and politely let myself out.

drivingmenuts• 12 years ago

Me neither but, strangely, I still kind of want one.

bjackman• 12 years ago

I gave this a cursory scroll but by the time I got to the bottom I didn't know what the product was. I was also annoyed by the overcooked design so I gave up. Sorry.

xtrumanx• 12 years ago

I did the same thing and also didn't understand what it was. I also can't watch the video right now.

Then I studied the images a little closer. It seems that thing on top the monitor projects an image on the mat on the desktop. The mat seems to be touch sensitive which means you're primary interface is no longer a keyboard/mouse combo but a new interface that will be unique to each application.

Sounds interesting but unless other manufacturers starting selling the same thing, I doubt it'll be widespread enough to attract a large enough group of developers to build apps for it which will probably mean it might be niche product. Still cool though.

eranation• 12 years ago

It's actually pretty cool, too bad they leave the punchline at the end of the too long video talking about hands.

kbar13• 12 years ago

I think the product looks like one of those shitty toy computers from shoprite.

richthegeek2• 12 years ago

The video works for me, but I have to agree with the other comments - I needed to work very hard to figure out what exactly this actually was.

The first 40! seconds of the video didn't show the product in action, the first image of it was from such an odd angle that I didn't even know it was an image of it at first, and the later images don't actually show the camera that seems to be an important part of it.

Part of me thinks this is a solution in want of a problem, designed by the kind of person who uses a spoon for soup and a fork for their main course and thinks "If only I had a combination fork-spoon, my life would be so much simpler".

bentcorner• 12 years ago

Part of me thinks this is a solution in want of a problem, designed by the kind of person who uses a spoon for soup and a fork for their main course and thinks "If only I had a combination fork-spoon, my life would be so much simpler".

I'm not convinced either - the demo could have been done with a smartphone app (take a picture, then allow you to manipulate objects via touchscreen).

Maybe there's more depth information that this device can capture that would be difficult to do with a normal camera? Maybe the project can do neat projections onto objects placed underneath it?

Seems like this could find success in specific niches (things needing tactile design?). Not sure if that's where HP wants to go with this.

currysausage2• 12 years ago

The first 40! seconds of the video didn't show the product in action

Same about the microsite: "We believe hands can do amazing things. What will you do with yours?" - So what is the site about? I scroll down one screen - "Blending the physical and digital worlds that you live in, Sprout unleashes your creativity like never before." - I still got no idea, it's just marketing gibberish.

The visual design is certainly beautiful, but there's a lesson: First of all, tell me what the site is about!

anigbrowl5• 12 years ago

??! There are pictures. I came here first, saw your comment, then looked at the site and had not trouble understanding the product or principle of operation just by looking at it.

Obviously that's no help to blond people who would prefer text, but in fairness they're highly unlikely to use such a product anyway.

shams93• 12 years ago

Yeah for 1800 they need to be doing a lot better job marketing their video wouldn't even play, their page is way too vague, 1800 is not starving artist friendly and their target are high end Mac users, this would be a bigger win if it was under $1000 and was a set of accessories to pimp out the Mac mini, this functionality + macosx. Get creative and make a deal with apple trying to sell creatives on windows 8 is going to lose

wahsd• 12 years ago

I don't know, I got it. I actually kind of like the idea and think it could be quite useful if it's high enough resolution.

What is a bit problematic for me is the position of the projector/camera relative to the monitor. I really don't want to have to extend my arm out to interact through touch. I f-ing hate having to interact with touch at a distance. I don't think it works for extended periods because it puts a strain on your arm.

I would have much more liked a design that allowed you to rotate monitor vertically so the projection/camera surface is off to the side or something. Or maybe they should make the projector/camera surface a separate device.

Kevin_S• 12 years ago

From what I saw you can use a wireless keyboard/mouse so the issue of reaching won't be as prevalent. Though you might mean you would actually use touch all the time, but I couldn't see myself doing that.

mrweasel• 12 years ago

I watched the second video first, so it was pretty obvious what it actually does. The first video is a bit useless.

I hope they sell the camera part separately, that's the awesome part. The touchscreen doesn't seem to serve a purpose, that would be just as good or better with a mouse or trackpad.

The touch idea is cute, but I don't see the point in touch when there's no tactile feedback.

wfbarks• 12 years ago

Dude, its called a spork. It was invented by taco bell, and its brilliant.

djeikyb• 12 years ago

Behold patent US147119[0], issued 1874, nearly a century before Taco Bell existed. The specific word "spork" was common enough to include in dictionaries just a couple decades later.

Hilariously, if you do an google ngram search for "spork,foon"[1], you'll find that in comparison, foon is incredibly popular, completely drowning out uses of spork.

I looked at the book results. It's apparent that the ocr has misconstrued ye olde "s" as an "f"; a mistake I also make, on those rare occasions I read something printed before 1800 or so.

[0] https://www.google.com/patents/US147119

[1] https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=spork%2C+foon&...

richthegeek2• 12 years ago

Yeah I know. My meaning was that you could spend thousands (millions?) of dollars designing and manufacturing sporks, or you could just switch utensil as required for free.

Whilst a spork is great for the singular task of "I'm eating minestrone", the benefits of it don't make it worth it having been created.

Much like this project. Why not use your already-good wacom and computer and webcam, which you already have, instead of buying a product which is probably a bit shoddy in at least one of those areas?

iwatch00• 12 years ago

Agree, not sure what is the use case.

kbart• 12 years ago

I simply scrolled through the whole page, didn't find any useful description and closed it. I guess a nice, short text summary at the top of the page is out of fashion now.

lnanek2• 12 years ago

In case other people are having trouble telling what it is, it appears to be a projector over a touch sensitive white board it can project on to placed in front of the computer where the keyboard normally is. Then it can track your hands for touch input.

I scrolled through the entire landing page, tried to watch the video which got stuck at 24 seconds before revealing something, then finally managed to get some frames from later on. Really terrible marketing since they are hiding what it is, but whatever. Seems inferior to a Wacom Cintiq in every way so far (an LCD with pressure sensitive pen with buttons that graphics artists use).

pa5tabear• 12 years ago

Engadget summary with videos: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/hp-reveals-sprout/

"It's a unique machine that combines an all-in-one Windows 8 PC with a set of 3D scanning cameras, a giant tactile touchpad and a downward-facing projector (for displaying graphics on said touchpad). The design is built around a concept HP is calling "blended reality" that blends the 3D physical world with our 2D digital one. The obvious target audience is creative types. You know: makers, tinkerers, designers, etc... Rather than the traditional method of control built around mice and keyboards, Sprout focuses on touch and pen input. The 23-inch LCD serves as the primary display, but it's the bottom display, the 20-inch capacitive pad positioned under the camera and projector that serves as the primary point of interaction."

rsync• 12 years ago

Oh, I thought the lower screen was an e ink display, sort of like simulating a sheet of paper there.

I don't like the lower screen with a projector - then the image is obscured by the shadow your hands make...

lost_name• 12 years ago

Presumably, if you're reaching across the pad, you're looking at the monitor, and if you're touching something on the pad then you probably can't see through your arms/hands anyway.

That being said, I think a second screen would be preferable all the same, but it would probably bump the cost significantly.

columbo• 12 years ago

I think it's an interesting approach. There are some things you can do with a projector that you couldn't do with another screen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9JXtTj0mzE)

I could see some applications taking advantage of this when it comes to working with physical items

waffl• 12 years ago

I was also quite confused about why they would choose a projector over a second screen, actually it was the most nagging question until, watching the intro video, someone projects a graphic onto a physical sheet of paper, so I suppose the immediate interaction between projection and physical objects is the main reasoning behind it.

In a two screen scenario, I suppose the user would have to image the paper, then composite it digitally. It's an interesting approach although I wonder how often it would be used.

hiou• 12 years ago

When you have a physical 3-dimensional object you can use the projector cast images on it. I wonder if it is used for calibrating and lining up objects for the 3D camera as well.

Schwolop3• 12 years ago

The applications will make or break this.

In my opinion, the killer app is digitisation of paper documents, tracking changes, and live multi-user editing. The 3d scanning stuff is a neat addition on top of that, but a much more niche use case.

e.g. My colleague writes a document and emails it to me. I open it, print it out, and bring it to Sprout, placing it on the capacitive mat. As I'm reading it, I'm annotating it with pen on paper. Sprout tracks my annotations, digitizes them, and adds them as a digital layer to the original document.

While I'm annotating, my colleague joins the "session" and wants to make more changes and incorporate some of my suggestions. I see that notification, chuck away my piece of paper, and have Sprout project the digital document onto the capacitive pad. While I watch, my colleague makes changes which are live-updated to my document. I see her copy my hand-written notes which have been digitised and OCR'd. She takes my notes, changes the font, and sticks them into one of the paragraphs. Likewise, I can use the stylus to make more annotations that my colleague sees in real-time, or, since the document is digital this time around, I can just edit the paragraphs directly too.

Think Google Wave + Collusion for iPad + the ability to do fairly seamlessly with both digital and physical documents.

zan24342• 12 years ago

I don't see the point of printing it in the middle, otherwise that is indeed a great potential use case

aaron6953• 12 years ago

From what I can see, what you talk about here is more the wishy washy magic the PR companies use to fool the masses.

How does Sprout do great OCR or facilitate joint collaborations?

These are both problems that need solving but have nothing to do with Sprout. PR often has things like this ‘solved’ for their mockups which people then falsely associate with the product.

See the mass delusion many people have with the Minority Report interface.

Why not just edit the email/document using a keyboard, you can even do it in a google doc so the other person can live collaborate, but as we know live collaboration is fine in movies but in real life is very very hard to do. Humans are just not build for it.

This isn’t about applications or Sprout, it’s about solving very hard problems.

Shivetya• 12 years ago

I did the the idea they displayed with making what appeared to be an ad or such but I think the work area is too small. I can see all sorts of fun for kids in arranging toys on different backgrounds to produce interesting pictures, provided there is some ease of sharing their work. Same with adults who want to do quick mock ups, something this would open up that world a lot more than any paint or image program ever did, most are still too arcane for the majority of users. This is like taking grade school collage work and suddenly making it a valid development tool

unwind• 12 years ago

So, it's a combined 23" touch screen and projection surface with touch and camera-based tracking, at a 90 degree angle to each other. With a built-in Core-i7-based computer, of course.

Pretty nifty, but also extremely specialized. Daring move!

josefresco• 12 years ago

Love to see this kind of innovation in the (IMHO stale) personal computer market. Even if it fails, or becomes a niche product we should encourage HP and others to follow and keep up with creative new form factors.

tinha2• 12 years ago

As a SDK developer for Sprout, it is indeed a daring move, we're all very proud :)

raphman• 12 years ago

Any reason why there is no information on the projector's resolution anywhere on the website or in the datasheet?

jnorthrop• 12 years ago

At the time I'm writing this all posts are complaining about the presentation of the site... yes it sucks, but the product looks really cool. It appears to be a combination of a camera and projection tool allowing the user to add real objects, such as a coffee mug, to the projected image and have it added to that image. Then user can use their hands to digitally move things around and otherwise manipulate the image.

That is really cool, but I can't help but think how limited its uses are. The real-world objects need to be relatively small (like a coffee cup, not a car) and you are limited by taking pictures from the top-down angle. However, that kind of interaction is really natural and would be easier to learn than say Photoshop.

staz• 12 years ago

Two screens at a 90degrees angle? Just imagining it make my neck hurts, they could have at least tilted the bottom one. There is a reason I learned to touch type...

baldfat2• 12 years ago

To me this is the way all pen and paper works. When I write I have a piece of paper on the desk and the screen in front. Seems natural to me.

nutate• 12 years ago

Radical hardware with a buy now button that doesn't go to kickstarter. Awesome.

baldfat2• 12 years ago

As a pre-school lab coach with 300 children weekly in my lab I would LOVE to get two and see what kids could do with some help with teachers.

I really like the idea of kids putting a physical 3d object into something 2d and build a simple blue print. STEM tool for children seems perfect to me.

HP contact me :)

kubiiii• 12 years ago

Neat machine. Desktop computers need things like this. After all, what can you do with today's desktop computers that you can't conveniently do with a tablet?

I can't predict a mass market destiny to this but it warms my heart to see a huge company release some kind of engineering chimera

3d cam is what is a perfect addition to 3d printers. Well, 3d printers prove pretty useless without 3d cams. It also enables 3d movement detection.

Something bugs me though, how is it possible for the 3d cam to see beneath the object (bird origami) to come out with such a perfectly scanned shape?

michaelbuckbee• 12 years ago

Really neat. Reminded me of the D&D downward projecting map setups:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGPV4-e3JI

stevenschmatz• 12 years ago

I see some interesting potential to make a three-dimensional experience using camera tracking and perspective effects on the surface.

Although at first I was a bit skeptical of the replacement of a touchscreen with a projector, there are some capabilities of a projector that you just don't get with a touchscreen – mainly, projecting images on real objects placed on the pad. This, combined with a 3D printer, could allow designers to create 3D shapes and project surfaces onto these objects.

mapleoin• 12 years ago

"Hands. They've always done amazing things..." That's a great beginning for a video parody of some Silicon Valley startups.

atom-morgan• 12 years ago

Remember Facebook's "Chairs"?

malloreon• 12 years ago

This is a neat idea but I'll bet in practice it is very tiring to use.

swamp40• 12 years ago

The Aha moment for me was watching the beans spill on the touchpad and getting immediately digitized and put into a presentation.

They also should have taken a real necklace, placed it on the touchpad and had it instantly digitized, then manually manipulated around the woman's neck.

Very cool product. I love seeing highly imaginative products, especially coming from well established companies.

Suggestion: Maybe whoever was in charge of this development project could push thru that super-cool HP logo and branding that HP was too scared to implement: http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/14/please-save-hp/

Xoxox2• 12 years ago

This might be the future! I think that HP has got something that is the "Next big thing". This revolutionary computer has the potential to be for everyone, especially Children. See DT's first look at http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/hp-sprout-multi-jet-f...

coldtea3• 12 years ago

The Aha moment for me was watching the beans spill on the touchpad and getting immediately digitized and put into a presentation.

Which is probably just a demo thing, and nothing that users can or will do in real life.

anigbrowl5• 12 years ago

I seem to recall you being similarly skeptical about the iPad - and whether or not that was you, I think this is an equally transofrmatve product.

There is nothing artists (and scientists) like better than a new toy. The win here is a camera with a standard fixed orientation towards its subject; high-quality optics are sacrificed for reproducibility. I can think of numerous creative/education applications for this just from looking at the still pictures, and I haven't clicked on any of the videos yet.

- let ants walk on it to study swarming behavior

- put petri dishes on it and leave them overnight to measure bacterial growth

- liquids with different viscosities/specularities for artistic purposes; I've tried 'painting' with dishwashing liquid squirted out of the bottle and a camera, but it's difficult

- rolling marbles around for stochastic video effects

- make arty models of things in whatever medium you like and then wave them around and have them scanned into 3d without any tedious calibration/scaling

- massive possibilities for gestural control of music/animation

I could go on and on. Think of this like a 'macroscope.' The advantage of a microscope is not just the lenses that let you look at very small things, but the form factor that makes it easy and efficient to put your samples in position and focus upon them. You could make an effective microscope that was like a telescope and that you held in your hands to look at small objects, but as soon as you think about it you realize what an utter pain in the ass it would be to use because of the constant refocusing and reframing.

I think it's too expensive and there will be an app shortage at first, but I feel comfortable predicting that this (or an iteration by a competitor) will be a fixture in any creative/educational/lab environment in short order. In fact, this is what has been missing fromt eh 3d-printing side; most of the desktop printers are Not Very Good and building CAD models is tedious for most people. How much nicer to have a high quality interactive scanner and just send the refined model to a facility with a high-quality printer, CNC or sintering device for delivery or pickup.

joezydeco• 12 years ago

It's neat to see some old concepts finally get implemented. Here's Sun's concept video from 1993:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJNxgZyVo0

melloclello• 12 years ago

I loved the bit where the sandwich gets digitized

dj-wonk• 12 years ago

Thanks for sharing that. Why can't I stop watching it? I keep waiting for something sinister to happen. Instead, nothing. No plot; just the past's version of the future of computing* coupled with extremely bad acting.

* Not just computing; it predicts a zero-emission, high-performance sports car that will sell 80K+ units in the first year.

Throwaway12830• 12 years ago

I think their existing logo is far better. The one above looks too modern, minimalistic, abstract, and edgy. For HP, I kind of expect something a little more curvy, playful, and potentially colorful.

cosmotron• 12 years ago

I don't think they'd ever switch to that logo specifically... it's too easy to confuse it with "bp".

It does look slick though!

_almosnow• 12 years ago

As w/ everything. Great software makes great hardware. Only 8 apps at launch (not that it is actually bad per se) and I find it hard to believe that it will gain traction among current developers. I can't think of any reason to start developing for sprout, a platform with zero users right now. Users won't buy because no apps, developers won't code because no users; it will be interesting to see how HP will manage to solve this.

Still, it's good to see a big consumer-oriented company like HP trying (at least) to innovate in some new way.

soylentcola2• 12 years ago

At the same time, at $1800, it still makes a solid all-in-one PC with decent specs. I tried to configure an iMac with similar specs but there weren't any 1:1 comparisons.

An iMac with an i7 of roughly equal speed, same 8GB RAM, a screen 2" smaller diagonal, similar nVidia graphics, same native resolution display (without touch capability), similar 1TB hybrid SSD/HDD, and none of the fancy projector/camera stuff would cost $1899.

Obviously these are going for different users and the iMac comes with Apple's trademark thin, industrial design whereas the Sprout adds the touch screen, pad, camera, and projector. Still, if you wanted an all-in-one and had $1900 to spend, I can see how you might pick up one with equivalent "guts" which came with the unique input options.

Worst case you don't get much use out of the projector stuff and still have a solid all-in-one on par with an iMac of similar price.

djrogers• 12 years ago

FWIW, the iMac's Fusion Drive includes a 128Gb SSD and a discrete spinning HDD, whereas the sprout appears to have a 'hybrid drive' which is a spinning disk with a small SSD used for cache. Much less expensive, flexible, and speedy.

A more Apples to Apples (sorry) comparison would be the non-fusion drive iMac for $1699

That said, the added hardware on this still seems to make it a relative bargain.

Istof• 12 years ago

the only problem is that it is either too expensive for mass market or that the camera/projector device is not available separately yet

dyeje• 12 years ago

This looks pretty awesome. Looking forward to giving it a whirl.

dvirsky• 12 years ago

I like the concept in general, but I have two main problems with it:

1. A vertical touch screen! my arms hurt just from watching the video showing that lady stretching her arm and dragging objects across some presentation slides. You simply can't do that for more than a few seconds.

2. I'm fearing a chicken and egg situation with the software aspects. I mean the photo editor they show looks nice and original but pretty limited. Without wide adoption from software makers you won't have more professional grade apps, and without professional grade apps, you'll still have the limited set of toy apps and no adoption.

Argorak• 12 years ago

I'm probably a bit weird in that regard, but the large image immediately reminded me of the Left4Dead cover image.

schtinky2• 12 years ago

I wonder to what degree public perception of a company's brand (think HP, Microsoft, Ebay vs Google, Apple) helps or hinders their ability to get a product off the ground. It reminds me of the old Shakespearean "What's in a name?" question.

One would like to believe that the product, if good enough, will always win out, but that's probably not the case, especially if it relies on an ecosystem to develop around it to be fully viable.

If brand quality matters severely, then an interesting question is whether or not startups have an advantage against large corps with bad reputations. Is it better to be StartuppyMcstartup nobody's ever heard of or Microsoft?

VLM2• 12 years ago

I admit the second thing I thought of after finally figuring out what this thing does, was how are they going to sell this for $50 and what will be the equivalent of the required every three months $75 ink cartridge?

The first thing I thought of was whenever you see something like this, its to goose the stock price. Generic investor types will fall for anything, as generations of AT&T and IBM advertisements have shown. I checked finance.google.com and this must be either very new news or older than a week news.

michael_h• 12 years ago

I think it can hinder it quite a bit, especially for something like this. The UX design for blending physical and virtual environments has to be nearly perfect. HP's track record with consumer facing software does not instill me with confidence that they can pull this off. I hope to be surprised.

vxNsr• 12 years ago

I think this will have a huge impact on the success of the product. I have an HP laptop right now and all the HP made software is terrible, it doesn't run well, crashes constantly and doesn't use the UX rules of any Microsoft OS (in fact parts would feel more at home on OSX than Windows) If they can get their stuff together and have a team that actually puts out usable software, that would go a long way towards making this a viable product.

Joeri2• 12 years ago

If apple had released this product, it would sell like crazy. I think the fact that HP made it will prevent it from getting traction, but it would be nice to be proven wrong.

mcphage3• 12 years ago

Maybe, but I think it's more likely that Apple would just never release a product like this.

crucialfelix• 12 years ago

Even if this fails commercially (as most out of the blue innovations do) its good for HP and people will reference it for years.

So in the long run its a good move for them.

aaronetz• 12 years ago

Reminds me of the augmented reality sandbox [1] I've played with at a museum [2] and which was really cool.

[1] http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/SARndbox/

[2] https://naturalhistory.novascotia.ca/

danielki• 12 years ago

Looks nice, but the 1-year warranty is a huge dealbreaker. If I'm going to be spending $1900 on a PC, it had better be guaranteed to last longer than that.

nathannecro• 12 years ago

Really neat concept and (it appears) fine execution!

Right now, it's a really niche product, but I'm looking forwards to see if this is improved and adopted more widely.

Also, the main video doesn't show much. This is much better:

http://bcove.me/0mvq74jn

bsimpson2• 12 years ago

I was big into experimental interfaces in around 2006. There was a similar peripheral for the Mac whose name escapes me. (I only ever saw marketing material for it.)

It had a sensor to detect the depth and positions of your hands above your desk. Its software would then cast a hand-shaped shadow on your screen, so you could see what you were about to interact with. The UI was like a touchscreen, but you'd abstract the touching away from the displaying for ergonomics.

It was a cool concept. Bummed it never went anywhere. Sprout could be interesting, but it would be a lot more interesting if it came from a brand that moved platforms (like Apple). I don't know if HP has the developer mindshare (or sales volume) to have a "revolutionary" product that people get excited about. There are too many other Windows machines (both inside and outside HP) for this to get the attention it deserves.

ryanmclaughlin• 12 years ago

Pretty sure you're thinking of Leap Motion.

https://www.leapmotion.com

bsimpson2• 12 years ago

Nope. I think the one I'm thinking of had a green website with a photo of a MacBook and a grey tablety thing that detected your hands. This was long before Leap was a thing.

I think the tablety-thing was an L shaped touchpad, where the depth sensors were in the | part of the L.

0942v8653• 12 years ago

It's called Leap Motion. https://leapmotion.com

In my opinion it's no better than a touchscreen because you have to wave your hands in the air which is more work than keeping it on a desk. I wouldn't buy it.

pbreit• 12 years ago

I think Leap still has huge potential (mainly commercial) but unfortunately not as a general purpose UI device. In fact, it's much worse than a touchscreen for all 2-D situations (ie, pretty much everything that's being represented on a flat screen).

VLM2• 12 years ago

Google terms to search for

"augmented desk" "InteractiveDESK"

This idea is introduced roughly every 4 years at least since the first time I saw it in the early 90s.

There has been some limited commercial success.

The local mall had a 100 sq ft model for kids to play with in one of the walkways. Balls bounce around and react when people walk into them.

Its more or less a kinect with substantial changes in scale and optical path.

Xoxox2• 12 years ago

So True!

bndw• 12 years ago

After watching the video on their landing page, I can't help but be reminded of the Generic Brand Video on Vimeo[1].

[1] http://vimeo.com/89527215

LiweiZ• 12 years ago

Thanks for the video, which led me to the footage service:)

flameingo• 12 years ago

This looks really cool.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBnf_lHxPdE)

PaulHoule• 12 years ago

You're looking at low end parts for the price, particularly the inclusion of a "Hybrid HDD". Hybrid HDDs do almost nothing for for Windows, but putting an SSD into a Windows machine makes it dramatically more responsive. If you want people to experience a new thing in computing that is tactile you can't make people wait for a disc to spin up, ever.

aragot• 12 years ago

I almost thought "Wow, someone finally starts building Apple-level PCs". But the machine still only runs Windows. To a certain crowd of IT profrssionals, Apple has raised the standard to "I need both quality gear and the unix experience (including the command line but not only)".

So much that it would make sense that HP starts supporting Ubuntu by default.

hk__2• 12 years ago

Side note: “prout” is French for “fart”. For a French speaker, this product’s name hence sounds like “sfart”.

Klinky• 12 years ago

Seems like no tech name is safe with the French. Just the other day someone was stating the name of "Puer" someone chose for their server app means "to stink" in French.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8513314

Narretz• 12 years ago

Correction: for a French speaker that doesn't know the word "sprout" and / or isn't at least an intermediate English speaker.

krosaen• 12 years ago

Wii or Virtual Boy?

Ambitious in any case, glad HP is trying!

wmeredith• 12 years ago

Kudos to them for trying something new! This looks great. I can't help but think they would have a little more credibility if the industrial design wasn't a wanna-be iMac. Oy.

crapiola• 12 years ago

This product must have sounded like a good idea to some clueless but slightly rich tech charlatans. Looking at the product page, a mediocre genius like me can tell:

The intro video tells zilch about the product. Tries to sell some grandiose vision about hands. As if they have evolutioned hands for snakes. That's a sore sign that there's not much to the product.

"A creativity station. A fully functioning PC. Whatever you want to call it, Sprout can do it. " I want to call it the spaceship voyager on a mission to the planet of the MBAs.

"Blending the physical and digital worlds that you live in, Sprout unleashes your creativity like never before." if by that you mean it makes you want to rant creatively, sure.

leeber• 12 years ago

It's kind of cool from the video, but honestly I lost interest half way through. I'm not sure if it solves an existing problem or would appeal to the mass market though.

I guess when you have cash that needs to be spent, you do stuff like this? I can't imagine this is the best innovation HP can come up with.

Domenic_S• 12 years ago

Did the woman in the video search for images and then steal the dolphin one to go with the HP logo?!

tonyedgecombe• 12 years ago

Good artists copy, great artists steal.

627467• 12 years ago

About time some serious attempt at blurring the lines between creating in digital and physical worlds. This along side paper and a 3D printer is going to be a fantastic tool in the creator toolbox.

Let's see how the dev community reacts to non-Apple/Google new platform.

niels_olson• 12 years ago

Really cool idea, too bad it comes with an operating system.

1) This should be a sold as a peripheral, not with its own CPU

2) Turn the bottom into a matte finish Cintiq monitor that can be quickly shut off

IkmoIkmo2• 12 years ago

My immediate reaction is that it looks pretty useless apart from being a foray into bringing digital and physical closer together, which may lead to other interesting things. We need springboards like this to find out what works and what doesn't and make something better, but in and of itself it doesn't seem too interesting.

Just the first reaction to some of the videos that are mostly bleh marketing. Might have to revise my opinion once I see some more.

Looking forward to seeing someone do a hands-on video, or just create something for 30 minutes with a camera looking over his/her shoulder.

anigbrowl5• 12 years ago

I think it looks insanely useful, just wish it wasn't so expensive (and I might make a few tweaks to the hardware - if there aren't cameras embedded in the frame of the vertical screen, which I didn't check yet, then there should be).

This is one of the most innovative products I have seen in the last several years.

IkmoIkmo2• 12 years ago

Don't mind me by the way, I'm not much of an artist so I don't really fit the immediate target group :P

Could you talk a little bit about what kind of things you'd like to use it for and how that either couldn't be done before, or is better than what you could do before. The videos didn't really do it for me.

Raphael• 12 years ago

You'd think they would write a description of the product. Basic SEO.

fastball• 12 years ago

Looks cool, but not sure I could get into it without any sort of haptic feedback.

roxtar• 12 years ago

Reminded me of the original Microsoft surface

radnam• 12 years ago

This reminds me so much about osmo https://www.playosmo.com/ Disclaimer: Not affiliated with the company

BlobbyLaMouche• 12 years ago

Yes! Disclaimer: I own an Osmo. One thing where Osmo wins for sure is the name. The name appart, sprout is trying to be much more than Osmo. I have to emphasize the "trying" though. Sprout is going in all the directions between the 3D scanning, the touchpad and the projector. Osmo is much more modest with just a camera looking at the table, but this also means they could concentrate on user interactions that really made sense and an incredibly good pattern recognition experience.

Anyway if I have the opportunity to play with Sprout I will!

matt_morgan• 12 years ago

Interesting that it's being sold as an all-in-one, where it could easily be a peripheral that works with any computer. It's packaged as signature bold product but they got there incrementally, using (as others have pointed out) an idea that's come around at times before (but in even more niche areas like museums).

jscheel• 12 years ago

Really impressed with this. I'm glad HP is trying something innovative in the desktop market. As a father of a young girl, I'm really interested in something like this. Could be especially great for her.

swalsh2• 12 years ago

With Tim Cook running Apple, there's a void in the "Well designed, but not cheap prosumer hardware" space. HP seems to want to stab it.

mmanfrin• 12 years ago

I'm not sure the connection between your two clauses -- are you saying that because Tim Cook is running Apple, Apple no longer produces "well designed, but not cheap prosumer hardware"?

swalsh2• 12 years ago

Yes. Steve Jobs was notorious for driving his team to do the impossible, no matter how marginal the utility might seem. He set the bar pretty high for design. All outside indications seem to demonstrate Tim Cook doesn't drive it to the same degree. I think Apple will still try to deliver on those traditions, but especially as the iphone 6 shows, they're not doing a great job at it.

Apple seems to lead the way in making things thinner, and following behind in making "new" things. Its a clear void.

state• 12 years ago

If your target audience is 'makers' then why is this being marketed as a toy? The underlying idea is great, and I'm very much looking forward to someone implementing this correctly — but I'm not interested in buying a giant toy for creating more 'moments' for my 'followers'.

I want something for doing actual creative work, and that's the only metric that matters for a product like this anyway. Maybe Bret should give it a try (http://vimeo.com/97903574).

namuol• 12 years ago

Finally, the problem of creating those fancy desktop-at-a-coffee-shop splashes is solved! throws away SLR

tlrobinson• 12 years ago

Neat idea, but I don't necessarily want a whole new computer, just the projector + 3D camera.

Someone should hack together an open source version. The hardware should be pretty straightforward: a commodity projector, a couple webcams, and perhaps an Xbox Kinect or similar.

pnathan• 12 years ago

Huh. This is novel. I don't know what to call it (initially I thought it was another tablet thing).

I'm kinda intrigued by where it'll go.

ceeekay2• 12 years ago

Looking at the "apps" section's picture, I can't help but feel like they've created a giant Nintendo DS. I also can't tell if I feel like that's a bad thing.

ceeekay2• 12 years ago

I knew I had seen that first image somewhere... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Fatboy_Slim_-...

Dharmakirti• 12 years ago

Loved it! Feels nice to see the pioneering spirit at HP is still alive.

A cursory look at the SDK shows that it's mainly WPF and C++ (QT?) which might make it easier to develop apps. Looks interesting.

TheMagicHorsey• 12 years ago

This is the coolest thing out of HP in a long time. I hope they don't screw it up in the typical HP way through tone-deaf responses to the market. They are going to have to work pretty hard winning over consumers because their PC and device brand has been damaged almost irreparably through decades of selling characterless beige boxes with poor performance, durability, and customer support.

seltzered• 12 years ago

Are any of the hp Sprout folks from the MS Research 'illumishare' team from a couple years ago? the video reminds me of this demo of kids playing games over skype with a similar system: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODx5t53j66M

also, an even older demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnL34XwTgag

I'm actually a bit surprised they didn't stress the collaboration features more, guess there's an initial fear of how many people will own the same device.

zan24342• 12 years ago

is the primary text input supposed to be a virtual touch keyboard?

hammerbrostime• 12 years ago

Wow, this makes me wish HP didn't make shit hardware.

emmanueloga_• 12 years ago

I'm always looking for the next note-taking device, and I got the idea it would be cool to combine a pico projector and a document camera, so I could project an image over my notepad and then just take a picture of it. This way I could, say, annotate web pages/pdfs with a real pen and scan quickly w/o having to rip the page.

That's how I found this guy's work I posted a couple days ago [1].

Anyway, turns out HP has done the hard work for me. Now I just need to waste some $2k USD to verify my silly idea... :p

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8502303

proffyt• 12 years ago

For history buffs, Pierre Wellner built a similar system at EuroPARC in 1991 called the Digital Desk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8lCetZ_57g

georgeoliver• 12 years ago

Wow, impressive! Did anything build on that do you know?

aridiculous• 12 years ago

This looks like something Apple should have been working towards for the Mac Pro, geared toward creative professionals.

foomoo• 12 years ago

The first image on the website [0] made me believe it is some kind of tablet with a big special case, as the picture is taken from an unexpected angle. But hey, first impressions...

That being said, this looks like some real innovation and makes for an interesting creative workspace setup.

Soon we'll have flexible flexible displays to close the gap between the screen and the projected area (see the moment in the video where she flicks an item from the screen on to the projected area? Quite literally, a gap in interaction).

I can imagine this being used in some of the user interface research labs which have been working with similar hand-made setups before.

Good move, HP.

[0] http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/sprout_meet...

oliyoung• 12 years ago

Looks like a neat concept of something that Apple will commercialise in 3 years

Allysquad• 12 years ago

I love the fact that when created the advert for sprout they user doesn't actually type the words Ice cream party but it comes up.

The user never actually hits the letter P but somehow it magically appears!

pmr_2• 12 years ago

This might seem like a minor issue but it annoyed me like hell. At that point I knew all I was seeing were the visions of a drunk marketeer anyhow, but at that point I realized that they weren't even bothering with reality.

Tepix• 12 years ago

Same here.

I still think it's an interesting concept, however. If they want it to gain traction, they should sell it as a peripheral.

anentropic• 12 years ago

looks very interesting, shame if its tied to Windows though...

fizgig• 12 years ago

First thing that popped to mind was projecting on top of a goban so I could get stomped by GnuGo while playing with my nice board and stones. There's something lost in playing Go w/o the tactile nature of a physical board and stones.

tempodox• 12 years ago

That does actually look somewhat interesting but what is a “20-point touch mat”?

Sprout

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