Your Desktop Your Computer

I have always had the idea, that a desktop should not merely be a place for which computer technology sat upon, but was integrated into.

My example:

The desk would look like any typical desk with the exception that there would be a box underneath which housed the extension cards from the motherboard. The motherboard itself would sit in a custom area built into the desk itself and easily accessed via a rolling tray. (Much like you see keyboards on presently.)

Now you will bring up cooling, well yes venting would have to be considered of course however thats not really a large concern.

The table top would consist of a built in mouse pad, and keyboard. They would fit flush to the desk surface, there by with a built in wrist pad would put your hands at the best position for typing. The desk would have to sit on custom leveling feet to allow the owner to adjust it to his, or her height.

Also in this would be housed the CD Rom’s, or floppy. They would be top loading, much like you find in current CD players. This is to allow for a clean flush desk top, but easily accessed CD Roms. Granted you could hang these from a box on the back which I will get to in a moment, but being at easy arms reach is the key.

Now we get into the good part. The desk would have a built in back board, with cabinets. It would have a web cam on a swivel to allow proper positioning. There would also be a built in Mic (Podcast quality), and two speakers. In the center would be housed the monitor, again measured from the desk top to rest at the recommended position.

You could add onto this, printer, scanner…etc. But the idea is there, and I have seen it implemented. A fellow poster had written a blog about Open Hardware, which would work well with this design.

The only argument I ever hear is “What if you need to take the computer to a shop.” That is why the motherboard is on a tray. So it can be easily removed. It is nothing for a tech to hook it up to a power supply,monitor, and HD.

If its the HD, that is housed in its own area which is the most complex part of the entire deal. It would have to rest on a ball bearing system, mounted to a free floating bay. Why? This is so if you bump your desk, or are moving it to a new location that the hard drive does not get damaged. It works on the same concept that modern earthquake safety buildings do. It allows the desk to move but the hard drive to remain in place.

Of course you could also remove the drive by just lifting the floating bay off the ball bearings via a access door in the back just to be on the safe side.

I’m curious, what do you think of my proposed “Desk of the future?”

Tags: desks, future, computers, organization