Ideas for a survival laptop

[BlazeRaider]

So I'm working on a project for school where I have to come up with a proposal for a new technology based product. I decided to try a survival laptop, that is to say a laptop with uses for surviving in say, the wild or when your lost or something. The idea is that it would be a sturdy reliable laptop that has extra features that could prove useful to someone in an emergency situation, ranging from anywhere to stuck in a blackout, post earthquake, lost in wilderness, plane/ship crashed or your out of gas in the middle of nowhere. So far the survival laptop has the following features (in addition to being a normal laptop):

-strong metal chassis
-encyclopedia in the computer containing information on a wide variety of useful information, such as how to make a fire, build shelter, plant and animal information, diseases and health conditions, food preparation, preservation... etc.
-map, compass, GPS
-radio
-flashlight
-electric lighter

All electric components can be charged by plugging it into the laptop if its not already software in the actual computer (like the map, and encyclopedia) and the laptop itself can be charged like normal but also has a hand crank so that you can power it anywhere.

So if this thing could actually exist, what else would yo want on it? Any other ideas would be appreciated. Also, I'm curious to know if you guys think this is a good idea in itself.

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Ok, so after some nice constructive criticism and suggestions, the survival laptop is currently at some sort of all terrain AK-47 durability kindle with an encyclopedia with knowledge of every survival situation you could get in to including terrain, plants, animals, and instructions on how to do things like make a fire, shelter, find food etc. Detailed maps of the world and every region you could get lost in with some sort of built in compass/GPS. And has some basic survival tools like a knife, lighter, mirror etc.

Well this seems a lot more practical and useful then my initial idea, thanks for all the help guys

 

[kerael]

Interesting. Hand crank to charge it? That would take a lot of cranking.
And compasses tend to not work when around metal... Could be a GPS compass, but they're really difficult to navigate by because you can't put them on a map to get an orientation.

 

[Shemming]

In built solar pannel?

 

[BlazeRaider]

Satelite phone. That's it. With that you could get help to pretty much anywhere in the world.

Given the battery life of a laptop, your suggestion is completely impractical.

A satellite phone sounds real useful, but I wouldn't say thats all you need, this is supposed to help in a variety of situations, not just being lost. And I am aware that laptops have finite energy storage, thats why it has a hand crank, which apparently works as there are already hand cranked laptops in production.

 

[Avaholic03]

All the things (with the exception of the lighter, but why would you need that included?) you've mentioned could be in a smart phone with a protective case. Why would you use a power-thirsty laptop? You'd also want something more portable. And smart phones can be charged with a hand-crank rather than getting a generator like you'd need to keep a laptop going for more than a couple hours.

 

[MagnetoHydroDynamics]

Built in solar panel?
Solid state hard drive?
Screen types?
Water proofing?
Direct heat conduction from CPU to chassis?
Sturdy chassis?
Motherboard in shock absorbing foam?

 

[thenumberthirteen]

I'd go for an E-Ink screen it uses a lot less power than a regular LCD screen. Sure the refresh rate is awful, but for presenting static data like maps it may not be an issue, and the trade off would be great for battery life.

To be honest the idea of a survival laptop isn't all that awesome since it would be more fragile, heavier, and more expensive than a book with a regular compass.

 

[Esotera]

-strong metal chassis
-encyclopedia in the computer containing information on a wide variety of useful information, such as how to make a fire, build shelter, plant and animal information, diseases and health conditions, food preparation, preservation... etc.
-map, compass, GPS
-radio
-flashlight
-electric lighter

I would remove the strong metal chassis, as weight is probably going to be a big issue in a survival situation. http://www.raspberrypi.org/ something like this would be very useful, as it runs off AA batteries & is very customisable. Waterproofing would also be fairly essential.

 

[kerael]

For being lost its very impractical, last thing you want while trekking out of somewhere inhospitable is another few kg's of kit to carry and to be sturdy enough for these purposes it would heave to be pretty heavy. I guess for long term wilderness survival it could be useful, but most bushcraft practitioners would argue it defeats the point of surviving on your on skills and strength. If you designed it more towards scientists, researchers and possibly the military working in inhospitable conditions then it might be viable. But the only features you would need would be:
Ultra-tough construction/components, way beyond what is available at the moment.
Very long battery life with some kind of non-mains dependent charger, solar, hand crank etc
Satalite link up for internet access.
Anything else would be better off being a seperate item, otherwise they're really impractical for using in the field

 

[BlazeRaider]

Solar panels, waterproofing, and e ink all sound like really nice ideas, I actually didn't know what e ink was until now. Also the idea of it being smaller then a laptop seem good too, The idea survival laptop was more of a general starting point then a decided fact, so leaning towards something smaller and more portable sounds smart.

 

[VyseRogueKing]

That would be useful in a survival situation. Although a tough metal chassis can be pretty heavy. Why not a thick durable plastic instead? Although I believe everything would be much more efficient on their own. Though a portable electronic survival encyclopedia would definitely be something much more interesting. Mainly because it would be the first step towards hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and honestly a guide like that would be pretty damn useful.

 

[A Satanic Panda]

I say maybe a smart phone chip set would do well. Sense it's very light weight and doesn't use a lot of electricity, you could build in to the chassis of something the size of mouse pad to give it extra surface area for a solar panel, and room for a larger battery.

And if money is no object, you could make the chassis out of carbon fiber, it's lighter and much stronger then steel and aluminium, just very expensive.

 

[Wintermoot]

probably a sort of modular build up allowing a user to swap out broken parts without the need of tools (for example in the case that the laptop breaks there is still the option of yanking the HDD/SSD out of the device to save valuable data without having to lug the laptop around)
Maybe a mechanical keyboard? I heard those are tougher then regular ones also EMP proofing since it,s designed to survive everything.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Since nobody mentioned it - i'd like it to have some stable Linux distribution installed and be equipped with smartass recovery solution - for example backup partition or something similar.

 

[Speakercone]

So I'm working on a project for school where I have to come up with a proposal for a new technology based product. I decided to try a survival laptop, that is to say a laptop with uses for surviving in say, the wild or when your lost or something. The idea is that it would be a sturdy reliable laptop that has extra features that could prove useful to someone in an emergency situation, ranging from anywhere to stuck in a blackout, post earthquake, lost in wilderness, plane/ship crashed or your out of gas in the middle of nowhere. So far the survival laptop has the following features (in addition to being a normal laptop):

-strong metal chassis
-encyclopedia in the computer containing information on a wide variety of useful information, such as how to make a fire, build shelter, plant and animal information, diseases and health conditions, food preparation, preservation... etc.
-map, compass, GPS
-radio
-flashlight
-electric lighter

All electric components can be charged by plugging it into the laptop if its not already software in the actual computer (like the map, and encyclopedia) and the laptop itself can be charged like normal but also has a hand crank so that you can power it anywhere.

So if this thing could actually exist, what else would yo want on it? Any other ideas would be appreciated. Also, I'm curious to know if you guys think this is a good idea in itself.

I've actually instructed wilderness survival before. Frankly I'd have little use for something like that in a survival situation. I should be keeping a lot of this stuff in a ditch bag anyway and the full funcionality of a laptop is not something I need if I'm fighting for my life. Best to carry water or food instead.

Your idea about an encyclopedia is interesting though. If you could make something like a Kindle but make it nigh-indestructible, then I'd consider keeping every field guide imaginable on that thing. Maybe a few novels too, to keep my morale up. Include a GPS and a radio distress beacon in the same device, and I'd definitely consider it an addition to my ditch bag.

 

[maxcarrion]

Give me a smartphone and make it a bit bigger so you can fit more battery and give it more "PC" capabilites - make it almost an ipad - make it really smart and give it USB ports for a keyboard, mouse and peripheral and an HDMI port so you can plug it into a TV or monitor, with all peripherals connected it should be able to do most of the things a full PC can do - include a micro mouse and roll up keyboard but these may get ditched if you need to move a lot

Make it a phone, a text, an internet browser, premium model can even sat phone maybe
Give the camera a ludicrously awesome zoom so that the camera can be used as binoculars, if you can get night vision working on it too even better.
Make it work off any signal provider on "emergency mode"
Make the memory solid state removeable cards so it bounces and can be rescued when all else fails
It can run map (these should download and occasionally update on the phone, not rely on a live connection and not be tied to the GPS and have more than just roads and postcodes like crappy OVI Maps ), compass, GPS and flashlight apps already - make sure it has "proper GPS" not just a road route finder,
Add a radio tranciever.
Add survival encyclopedia, lots of useful stuff here, what's edible, how to make water condensers, stills and animal snares, how to navigate hostile terrain, build shelters etc. etc. etc. In fact more than an encyclopedia, an expert system that assesses key needs and compares it to information about the terrain/situation - a little thought could make something awesome
Add renewable "recharger" whether solar, crank or other
Harden the shell - some rubber and plex and so on to make it hard to kill, give it a second hard, watertight fibreglass case to protect it when not in use
Pack the case with a couple of bandanas, a small multitool, some scalpel blades, an electric lighter some iodine and some water purification tablets, I'm sure someone can suggest even more tiny useful items that could fit in a "washbag" sized case that is half full of phone

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Your idea about an encyclopedia is interesting though. If you could make something like a Kindle but make it nigh-indestructible, then I'd consider keeping every field guide imaginable on that thing. Maybe a few novels too, to keep my morale up. Include a GPS and a radio distress beacon in the same device, and I'd definitely consider it an addition to my ditch bag.

I agree, a laptop is really not necessary in a survival situation. What necessary purpose would a laptop perform that you would be unable to achieve with other, lighter and smaller tools: Access to Microsoft Excel? Minesweeper?

But a smallish, durable kindle type device, that comes with ready uploaded encyclopedias and survival manuals with all the stuff you mentioned in your original post, I would add a satellite phone, knife, and mirror (don't underestimate the usefulness of a mirror) Make sure it's waterproof, and give it an electronic ink screen, so the battery will last for about a month, with your hand crank idea it could go indefinitely. Maps would be good, as would the ability to connect to the internet, maybe using some sort of satellite uplink.

The real uniqueness of the product will come from the ability to have all the survival information to help in almost any emergency situation, available in a small, durable guide.

Actually, if you emblazon the words "Don't Panic" in large friendly letters on the front of it you sir, will become the author of the first actual "Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy". Congratulations.

 

[escaje]

I should use as Lenovo laptop as basis. They are very solid and can be dropped from 1.7 meters heighth without damage. Really as reliable as Swiss chronometers [http://www.chrono24.com/en/watches/chronometers--40.htm].
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMkSxdR-W0g