
Sprout - perone
http://sprout.hp.com/
======
pa5tabear
Engadget summary with videos: [http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/hp-reveals-
sprout/](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
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
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.

~~~
seanp2k2
Screens are [comparatively] cheap, esp. Vs a custom projector + touchpad + 3d
camera set-up. I don't think they went this route to save on production costs.

------
richthegeek
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".

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

~~~
richthegeek
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?

~~~
pmr_
I'm going on a tangent here. The spork is the preferred tool for eating by
many outdoor enthusiasts.

------
swamp40
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/](http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/14/please-save-hp/)

~~~
joezydeco
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKJNxgZyVo0)

~~~
dj-wonk
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.

------
unwind
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!

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

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

~~~
kevincrane
It's on the website, under "Closer Look".

"1024 x 767 DLP projector"

~~~
lmm
They couldn't afford to spring for one extra line of pixels to make it a
standard resolution?

------
bjackman
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
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.

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

------
schtinky
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?

~~~
michael_h
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
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.

------
bndw
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](http://vimeo.com/89527215)

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

------
jnorthrop
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.

------
nathannecro
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](http://bcove.me/0mvq74jn)

------
baldfat
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 :)

------
TheMagicHorsey
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.

------
VLM
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.

~~~
Xoxox
So True!

------
radnam
This reminds me so much about osmo
[https://www.playosmo.com/](https://www.playosmo.com/) Disclaimer: Not
affiliated with the company

~~~
BlobbyLaMouche
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!

------
kubiiii
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?

------
superuser2
I still can't tell what Sprout is.

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

------
stevenschmatz
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.

------
aaronetz
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/](http://idav.ucdavis.edu/~okreylos/ResDev/SARndbox/)

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

------
matt_morgan
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).

------
bsimpson
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.

~~~
0942v8653
It's called Leap Motion. [https://leapmotion.com](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
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).

------
foomoo
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...](http://store.hp.com/wcsstore/hpusstore/Treatment/sprout_meetSprout_1900x603.jpg)

------
627467
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.

------
proffyt
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8lCetZ_57g)

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

------
lnanek2
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).

------
emmanueloga_
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8502303)

------
seltzered
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](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODx5t53j66M)

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

------
dvirsky
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.

------
IkmoIkmo
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.

~~~
anigbrowl
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.

~~~
IkmoIkmo
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.

------
jscheel
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.

------
state
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](http://vimeo.com/97903574)).

------
wmeredith
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.

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

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGPV4-e3JI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPGPV4-e3JI)

------
niels_olson
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

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

~~~
atom-morgan
Remember Facebook's "Chairs"?

------
PaulHoule
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.

------
roxtar
Reminded me of the original Microsoft surface

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

------
hk__2
Side note: “prout” is French for “fart”. For a French speaker, this product’s
name hence sounds like “sfart”.

~~~
Klinky
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8513314)

------
ceeekay
I knew I had seen that first image somewhere...
[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Fatboy_Slim_-...](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/bb/Fatboy_Slim_-
_Halfway_Between_the_Gutter_and_the_Stars.jpg)

------
tlrobinson
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.

------
fizgig
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.

------
himanshuy
Video does not play on safari.

~~~
ponyous
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](http://bcove.me/gqbyor0d)

~~~
FlyingLawnmower
Interesting -- it played fine for me on FF.

------
kbar13
I think the product looks like one of those shitty toy computers from
shoprite.

------
Allysquad
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_
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
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.

------
ceeekay
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.

------
Dharmakirti
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.

------
crapiola
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.

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

------
danielki
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.

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

------
pnathan
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.

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

------
krosaen
Wii or Virtual Boy?

Ambitious in any case, glad HP is trying!

------
namuol
Finally, the problem of creating those fancy desktop-at-a-coffee-shop splashes
is solved! _throws away SLR_

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

~~~
tonyedgecombe
Good artists copy, great artists steal.

------
aragot
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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

------
staz
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...

~~~
baldfat
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.

------
swalsh
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
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"?

~~~
swalsh
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.

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

------
zan2434
is the primary text input supposed to be a virtual touch keyboard?

------
_almosnow
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.

~~~
soylentcola
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
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.

~~~
soylentcola
Yeah, good call. I was trying to find a configuration that was fairly close to
see if it was roughly in the same range. Seems like it is so if you were
comparing the two, you could spend about the same amount of money and either
get a nicer storage option and Apple materials or a larger screen with touch,
touch pad, and all of the projector/camera stuff.

My main interest was whether this was drastically more or less expensive than
the most popular all-in-one PCs out there even if you don't care about using
the unique Sprout stuff all the time.

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

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leeber
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.

