Sharp Mebius Netbook Trackpad Sports LCD Display, Optical Sensor

Sharp's new Mebius netbook, destined for Japan, may finally show some innovation in the netbook market: its trackpad sports an LCD display and optical sensor.

Electronics giant Sharp isn’t a major purveyor of personal computers in the North American market, but it does offer PCs in its native Japan. The company has just announced a new Mebius PC-NJ70A netbook for the Japanese market that sports a unique feature: instead of a traditional trackpad, the computer sports a 4-inch 854 by 480-pixel LCD panel with optical sensors. The multitouch-capable pad can detect up to four fingers or styli on its surface, but the embedded LCD panel means the trackpad can be used for additional interface elements: Web bookmarks, an equalizer for a music player, and—of course—Kanji character input.

In terms of specifications, the Mebius is a typical netbook: a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, a 1,024 by 600-pixel display, a 160 GB hard drive, Web cam, and 1 GB of RAM—the unit also sports 802.11 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, Ethernet, a multi-format memory card reader, and three USB 2.0 ports. The netbook itself runs Windows Vista Home Basic, but the applications in the sensor pad are actually running an embedded Linux operating system.

Sharp will begin offering the system in Japan in late May for about ¥80,000, or about $800 USD. The company says it is considering taking the Mebius to other markets, particularly areas where complex writing systems are common: the trackpad can already handle basic Chinese and Korean characters, along with English.