Haven’t you ever been outside for a meeting and think to yourself, “Darn, a small projector would really be useful now.” Or were you ever at a gathering where you secretly thought, “Well, this party can certainly use a game of Angry Birds projected on the wall!” The technology of today has certainly made such wishes come true with the advent of pico-projectors. TouchPico is trying to be the newest one in the block and it also comes with an Android PC and a stylus to enhance the projecting experience.
The pocket-size handheld projector can use any surface to project the content that you want to show off, be it a slideshow of your vacation pictures, a document that you need to collaborate on, or the latest episode of your favourite TV show. The fact that it’s also an interactive Android PC means that you can use Android apps and use it in its normal mode. It also comes with an infrared stylus that you can use on the projected surface, just like you would use it on your smartphone or tablet. If the material you need is on another gadget or desktop, you can also stream it to TouchPico by using WiFi Direct.
Sounds like a dream right? Well, there are quite a few drawbacks for now. For one thing, the 854×480 projector which projects up to 80-inches of an image runs on a dual-core processor that is mid-tier at best and runs on Android 4.2. It only has 150 lumens so if you’re in a bright place, the projection would not be as good. TouchPico also just uses a stock build of the OS so it’s not official (they’re working on getting qualification though) and so you can’t download apps from the Google Play Store. The battery life of TouchPico isn’t that impressive, as it can only last 45 minutes, which is just enough for one episode of a TV show. It also doesn’t have Bluetooth connectivity so you can’t connect a keyboard to make the projection a substitute screen for when you’re working on documents.
But if you think TouchPico can serve your simple projection needs, then you can support this IndieGoGo project. There are 29 days left and so far, they’ve managed to reach 57% of their goal already. If they do reach their $55,000 target, the tiny projector is expected to ship by October this year.
SOURCE: IndieGoGo
VIA: SlashGear
