Woody Hayday

I randomly happened across this combination, that is projector’s as big as your mobile phone, coupled with the beagleboard – essentially a single level PCB (printed circuit board) that is equally as miniture but provides a full pc worth of features. Couple the two and you essentially have a computer about the capacity of a few year old standard box, coupled with a VGA projector capable of projecting up to a 65 inch screen, all within a box the size of 5 cd’s in a pile. Throw a battery into the mix and then that small box is 100% mobile.

The most amazing thing about this technology is that its enthusiast inspired, there really is a market for people to be putting WHOLE COMPUTER’s and VIDEO PROJECTORS within things they make. What can we expect from children’s system’s technology projects if they can fairly easily contain whole computers and projectors? These sort of developments open up the development of the way we work with technology to a huge proportion of western society. A positive step towards democratising tools (granted its probably a few years old and I missed it, and its cost currently acts as a barrier to global availability, but a few of these in school could really push the kids ideas forwards.)

If you fancy having a look check out the Projects section, there are some great projects people have done using the beagle board, for example the BeaglePack, a take on modern civilisation expressed through robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous graphical projection around the city.