The Piqo projector, designed by Piqo (Los Angeles, CA), is described by the company as a powerful, on-the-go HD projector that is compact, durable and intuitive to use.
Some of the features of the Piqo projector are as follows:
- Uses DLP technology
- 1920 x 1080p HD image resolution
- Projected image size: up to 240 inches
- Image brightness: 200 lumens
- Wirelessly connects to user devices via built-in WiFi and Bluetooth 5.0
- Directly connects to user devices via HDMI or USB
- Weight: 210g
- Size: 2.25 inch x 2.25 inch x 2.25 inch
- Battery life: 50 hours of music playback and 5 hours of video playtime
- 15 minutes of charge time can provide power an hour of video viewing.
- Hi-fi speakers
- 16 GB of built in memory for offline storage
- Powered by Android
The company anticipates that the portable Piqo will be placed on a wide variety of surfaces. One possible consequence of this is that the surface may not be level and that the projected image may therefore be geometrically distorted. This encouraged the company to include a capability that they call intelligent keystone auto-correction. The capability was enabled by equipping the device with gravity sensors that are used for automatic angle adjustments. Company literature explains that “with the touch of a button, the projector will correct its own angle.”
The device includes a touchscreen that allows the users to select media, apps and manipulate controls through the use of intuitive, drag-and-click inputs. More specifically, there are five touch icons around the central touch area to be used for navigation and simple adjustment of functions that include volume and screen dimensions.
Piqo can connect seamlessly and instantly to Windows, Android and iOS devices including smartphones, tablets and computers as well as gaming consoles. Piqo is compatible with apps in the Google Play Store. Piqo can also stream or download from Netflix and YouTube, manage the user’s calendar and perform many other functions.
A video discussing the Piqo and demonstrating the projector in use can be found at the end of this article. The left hand portion of the figure below is an exploded view of the Piqo projector. The right hand portion of the figure below shows the projector from four sides.
Left: An exploded view of the Piqo projector. Right: The Piqo projector from four sides.
The company is raising funds on Indiegogo by way of a campaign that can be found here. The campaign is highly successful having already raised, at the time this article is written, an amazing $805,143 from 2,263 backers against a fixed goal of $10,000. Based on this level of success, the duration of the campaign was allowed to be extended and is now scheduled to close at the end of January. The use of the originally solicited funds is not specifically identified in the campaign description.
The company reports having developed a manufacturing-ready model, is ready to place an order for the materials needed to start assembly and has “kicked off the production process.” Based on this status, the company is confident in guaranteeing that the product will ship. Also based on this status, it is not clear why the original dollar amount of the campaign was so small.
The company encourages customers interested in purchasing a Piqo to buy direct from their web site and, thus, cut out all the middlemen and redundant shipping. By placing an order now on Indiegogo, early bird pricing of $325 is available versus a regular price of $700. Delivery is promised for early March. -Arthur Berman
