Hard Drive That Doubles As a Touch Pad

You know, with all the different types of semi-redundant gadgets cluttering our lives–laptops, tablets, smartphones, set-top boxes, home gaming systems, portable gaming systems, MP3 players, PMPs, etc., etc., etc.–wouldn’t it be nice to get a little more out of each one?

Take the external hard drive, for instance. Sure it’s great at backing up your system for that disaster that may never happen, but other than that it’s just a big, hardware brick taking up space. Shouldn’t it do something else to earn its keep?

Well, designer André Duarte Silva sure thought so. His ‘Lacie Float’ concept turns the standard hard drive into a touch pad that you can use to control your computer. So now instead of just collecting dust on your shelf, the Float eliminates one piece of hardware (assuming you have an external mouse or touch pad) and does double duty.

Pretty sweet, but unfortunately, only a concept. [via Yanko]