*bows head for one minute's silence*

LOL that makes me think of ceramic hobs - very pretty, very easy to clean but you can't actually do any real cooking on them!

Wouldn't know I am not allowed to use cookers. Microwaves FTW.

I came up with this idea years ago. Feckers. The premise was a laptop which was essentially like two panes of glass (in terms of thickness and opaqueness but light as plastic. The keyboard would be the result of a grid that was on the laptop, shown by LCD or equivalent. The keyboard could be configured for different layouts or patterns. The screen would be visible from one side only but again could be divided or apportioned as required.

But I agree with the dampening effect. You'd need a soft transparent rubber membrane which would cushion the impact.

I've seen something a lot like that too. People described it as "like a giant Nintendo DS".

http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/iconia

I love the "Acer Ring" picture where it looks like the "one giant button" spoof MacBook as seen on The Onion.

Tosh and a few others have done it too.

^^^that's very close to what I envisioned, though the buttons would have a semi-transparent white outline and letter with the rest of the button being clear. Very interesting link.

Obviously it's a compromise, because they actually made it from today's tech and you can buy it. I imagine the concept drawing might have been much closer to your vision!