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Motorized Laptop Scroll

Papyrusy
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The linked idea was posted on behalf of my brother Sturton, and a suggestion from [hippo] inspired this far superior idea.

To the left (or right) of the trackpad on a MacBook, there should be two recesses which can accommodate the rolls of a small replaceable paper scroll, perhaps bearing only a few feet of paper. A hinged bezel folds down, concealing the recessed rollers and framing the paper between them.

Under trackpad, mouse or key control, the scroll can travel backward or forward between its limits.

Gadulka! You now have a space in which to make doodles, sketches and other suchlike and, at the swipe of the trackpad, the scroll can be advanced to reveal fresh paper, or rewound to locate old items.

Cunning software, coupled with a position encoder for one of the rollers, can even allow you index and retrieve specified scroll positions.

Even cunnier software would make use of an inbuilt linear scanner, allowing your sketches to be captured as image files for further manipulation.

MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011

A related but inferior idea Laptop_20Post-It_20recess
by Sturton Buchanan. [MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011]


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Annotation:







       This roll of paper could even be used to print stuff onto
hippo, Oct 18 2011
  

       Only if use can be made of a plotter-style quill.
MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 18 2011
  

       I would love to see a steampunkish motorized feather quill (you could modify the CD-ROM tray to hold the inkwell) that scratched out everything I thought via brainwave link (using papyrus font, natch). Then I wouldn't have to carve my every whim into the cat. That screeching is getting on my nerves.
Alterother, Oct 18 2011
  


 

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