To execute their work, designers often shuffle between three different UIs: A mouse or 3D mouse, the keyboard, and a good ol' fashioned pen/marker/pencil. Typically the mouse and keyboard happen on your computer, and the sketching takes place off to the side. But this new concept aims to add the analog writing tool as a third on-computer interface.

The concept—pointlessly named the AI Book, though there's no AI hardware in it—is by Compal, a Taiwanese computer manufacturer. What they propose is turning the entire area under the keyboard, where the trackpad typically is, into a full-width E-ink surface that you can write or sketch on with a stylus.

This E-ink screen would also features this unusual hinge arrangement, so that it can flip out of the way when you close the laptop, then flip back down to live on the outside. This would allow you to jot quick inspirational notes or sketches without opening the screen and firing everything up.

Some laptops like Microsoft's Surface already allow you draw directly on the screen with a stylus, but that's a bit ergonomically awkward; having the writing surface down low, like Compal proposes, is more akin to sketching on a pad on your desk.

While you've likely never heard of Compal, they make laptops for Apple, Acer, HP, Sony, Toshiba and other well-known brands. The concept is perhaps their bid to garner consumer attention, potentially in advance of selling products under their own name.