In pictures: past, present and future collide at the Gadget Show

V3.co.uk spent a busy morning at the Gadget Show in Birmingham's delightful NEC Arena this week to take a glimpse at some of the innovations on display at the annual event.

Among a slew of tablets and laptops for consumers and businesses, including several from Lenovo, there were one or two interesting and noteworthy products on display.

Below: Lenovo's IdeaPad S1 tablet will give users the ability to use a digitiser pen to take more efficient notes than hammering on a touch-screen keyboard, and will be out in the next month or so in the UK.

Below: Underlining the desire for tablets of any kind in the consumer space, Elonex had a range of cheap 'media tablets' on display. The 5in version costs just £59 and it wouldn't be surprising to see them in an Argos catalogue at Christmas.

Below: Slightly more high tech was Warwick University, which was showing off its 3D scanning and printing technology. This accurately captures the dimensions and contours of an object, such as a human hand, before using the measurements to produce an exact 3D representation of that shape which can be used to fashion corresponding physical items.

A representative on the stand explained that the system had recently produced a pair of gloves for a surgeon that fitted his hand exactly, for example.

Below: While tablets and touch screens dominated, the Centre for Computing History was keen to make sure everyone remembered where they came from, with a selection of ancient devices (in computing terms) on display including a Commodore 64 and an old Apple Mac.

Below: Even R2-D2 was in town to catch the eye of those walking past electronics
retailer PC World.

13 Apr 2011