Rampant Imaginings
MAKE IT LIKE IT IS IN MY HEAD!
An Indiegogo project to build a watch that projects its display onto your hand has blown the doors off its target by raising a million dollars in funding – even though no functional device has yet been built. The Ritot watch uses a DLP matrix in a wristband to project an image on to the back of the wearer's hand. In addition …
IN MINE, IT CAN SHOOT OUT A GRAPPLING HOOK, HAS A FULLY WORKING COMPASS AND HAS A THING FOR GETTING STONES OUT OF HORSES SHOES....AND IT CAN TELL YOU IF THE PERSON STANDING NEXT TO YOU IS A VAMPIRE AND CAN ALLOW YOU TO CONTROL MAGNETIC FIELDS AND SUB YOU A TENNER FOR THE PUB ON FRIDAYS.
If someone made once-use only version of the watch that used an entire battery capacity in one go to crank a laser up to 11 and burn the time into the skin on the back of your hand, there's no doubt people would still buy it, wether they're a fanboi or not.
"If someone made once-use only version of the watch that used an entire battery capacity in one go to crank a laser up to 11 and burn the time into the skin on the back of your hand, there's no doubt people would still buy it"
I'd definately buy that.... but mostly so I could hack it, give it to my mate Johnny, and laugh hysterically as he sears the word COCK onto the back of his hand.
DLP chips are just too power-hungry
I'm not 100%, but I wouldn't expect a DLP solution to be any more power-hungry than an LCD-based solution.
Both designs would use an LED as the light source. As they look to be single colour (possibly configurable), this will be either a single colour LED or an RGB LED module producing the single required colour, into a monochrome display technology (so no colour wheel, as used in colour DLP video projectors)
Therefore the only ingredient to influence the power consumption would be choice of display technology. As DLP "transmits" a higher proportion of the light than LCD, I would expect it to be able to use a lower power light source. I guess that DLP chips may take a slightly larger amount of power to run, although I doubt by much. Therefore I would estimate that a DLP solution would take roughly the same amount of power to run (at the same brightness), possibly slightly less.
I'm no expert, and am only using guesstimation based on a loose understanding of the technologies involved, so am happy to be corrected if I am wrong.
Since KS added their "quick project launch" (or whatever they called it) a month or so ago, they've allowed projects with about the same level of preparedness (plus all that twaddle about making various food products and a pile of "fund my life" begging "projects").
I'm pretty sure there was even a KS project for some super-duper 'phone-connected wristband that was even more of a fantasy that this one; off-hand can't recall what it was called or I'd drop in the URL just here: ....
I have a very big problem with Kickstarter financing: you do not get shares in the company for your contribution. Recently a company, which got started with the help of Kickstarter financing, was sold for a large pile of money. The people who financed it through Kickstarter did not get a penny for their contribution. If the same company had been financed by some venture capital company the investors would have got a share in the company and this way also a large pile of the purchase price.
Quit your whining. We all know you are talking about Oculus. You kickstarted the production of the first Oculus Rift dev kit, you received your Oculus Rift Dev kit. End of contract. You did not, and where never lead to believe you where investing in the starting/expansion of the company, so you have no right whatsoever to whine what happens with/to the company after the contract/purchase/deal YOU had with them is fulfilled. And keep in mind, if Oculus had racked up massive debt and folded, even after delivery of the Dev kit, YOU WOULD BE OUT OF MONEY.
If you would have bought shares of the company, you would have paid a LOT more.
"It’s telling that Kickstarter would not have accepted a project at this stage."
Not sure about that. Whatever Kickstarter claims they won't accept, they do and even when you bring it to their attention they ignore it.
Like this one I emailed them about Magnetic Hoverboard? I think YES!
Just a page to sell merchandise based around a non-existent project. Didn't hit funding level but it was never taken down.
People in bedrooms trying to make products that are better than corporates that spend gazillions every year? I recently got a LIFX bulb to review as a freebie, and it's utter toss. That was a Kickstarter product. Most of it's product features are either broken or (still) coming soon. Their Android app is terrible, and some features are still iOS only (despite near total Android dominance).
You would have to be a total pleb to invest ANY money in kickstarter. it's failed product-city.
I've pledged to five Kickstarter projects and every one of them has delivered. This may be something to do with my choice of projects (RPi add-ons and Elite:Dangerous*) or the fact that I won't part with my money for a pitch consisting of a few joss sticks and some whale song.
* Technically E:D has not been released yet and is behind their original schedule but since I'm in the beta and it does exist / work I'm giving them a pass.
They should merge this product with those projection keyboards.
Display output on the back of your hand, and type / mouse with your other hand.
Viola! the perfect display / input method for wearables.
Failing that, sell them in pairs - project half of the keyboard onto each palm and type letters with the relevant thumb.
...and while doing a job in a school the other day I say a projector on the wall only about 30cm from the wall projecting a nice computer display. I'd not realised before then that lens technology could do that. All the ones I've seen before were mounted at least a few metres back from the wall.
Lens tech can do that but it's far from simple. While the basic trapezoid mathematics are relatively easy to grasp the practicalities of projection onto a surface for reflective viewing at vastly different angles and maintaining similar brightness throughout start adding to the chore, and then you have to take into account multiple colours and even pixel shaping. Short throw projectors typically work better with very specific surface types therefore projecting onto your own wall with your own choice of paint tends to complicate things further.
My idea is to use moving mechanical reflectors and ambient light to project an image onto the user's retinas!
I've got working prototypes and with a little funding can supply a practically unlimited number of units at under $50 a unit!
Where do I sign up for my million dollars?