Foldable dual touch screen device with slide out keyboard
A dual-touchscreen is a computer or phone display setup which uses two screens, either or both of which could be touch-capable, to display both elements of the computer's graphical user interface and virtualized implementations of common input devices, including virtualkeyboards. Usually, in a dual-touchscreen computer or computing device, the most persistent GUI elements and functions are displayed on one, hand-accessible touchscreen (changing with the software application in use) alongside the virtual keyboard, while the other, more optically-centric display is used for those user interface elements which are either less or never accessed by user-generated behaviors.
This approach is similar to that of the Nintendo DS handheld game console's construction, in which user-generated actions are initialized on the lower resistive touchscreen while the resulting graphical displays are executed in the upper screen. The same approach was adopted on its successor unit, the Nintendo 3DS and a similar concept was created for Nintendo's eleventh home console, the Wii U, with its controller's resistive touchscreen used in the same fashion as the lower part of the DS/3DS, and the secondary screen connected to the console.
In 2004, Italian design firm V12 Design designed a prototype dual-touchscreen laptop known as the Canova.[1]
In 2007, Pennsylvania-based company Estari released its 2-VU laptop, initially for the United Statesmilitary before a public release.[2]
In 2008, the OLPCXO-2 was announced to use a dual-touchscreen setup.[3][4]
In May 2009, The Asus Flipbook[5] was first demonstrated, at CeBIT as a dual-touchscreen laptop with the ability to optionally display user interface elements in both screens both horizontally and vertically; the concept design was renamed as the Asus "Eee Reader", rebranded as an e-bookreader, and scheduled for launch in Q4 2009.[6] The device was finally renamed as "Eee Book" and scheduled for a June 2010 release at Computex in Taipei.
In March 2010, the EnTourage eDGe was released, also directed more as e-reader than as computer. One of the two touchscreens is monochrome E Ink, the other is color liquid crystal display (LCD).
