HiLo Tablet Concept Uses Keyboard made of Felt Material

When the market competition gets tough, the innovative get strange. That's exactly what's happened here with industrial designer Roni Mergolin, a fellow who is today presenting a design for a tablet-like device which sits inside a sleeve made of felt that doubles as a keyboard for said tablet when it's up and out. It's time for some super-soft yet super-protective action as once your tablet is out in the open, it's hooked up instantly to the case it's carried in for easy-to-use and interact with mobile computing action.

A reminder before we continue here that this design is conceptual. No matter how much you actually want a mainly felt-made case for your tablet to also double as a keyboard, it wont exist unless you get Roni Margolin to make it for you. That said, as with most industrial designers, I'm sure Margolin would be happy to collaborate with you to get this magic underway. This device being just a concept yet so well fleshed out it's only a few steps away from reality, all it needs is a few pushes in the correct directions.

This project consists of the sleeve AND the actual tablet which we must assume runs Android – just seems to fit, doesn't it? This tablet is ready to sit up on its own with a kickstand that allows you to instantly start working with the case it comes with, aka the felt keyboard. The keyboard case features fused and hot-pressed keys with embedded circuitry in and on a lovely felt case which is able to contain the tablet piece of this project while it's not in use. The tablet itself is made of aluminum and ABS plastic and the entire project sizes in at 280 x 160 x 14 mm and weighs a total of 1 kg.

Furthermore, this tablet has a fantastic shape to it, I muse say, and appears very much to be showing off two USB 2.0 ports and a single power port via an indented portion on the back of the tablet while the speakers for the tablet are either on the sides or on the front, and the back has that fabulous kickstand for all-over use. Even if you think the felt keyboard bit is bunk, look at that tablet – it's magic!

[via Yanko Design]