With many large touchscreen displays – such as Microsoft’s 4K 55- & 84-inch Surface Hub Displays set to arrive next month – commanding up to $20,000, it comes with little surprise that some hardware developers have been dedicating their time to bringing similar user experiences to the masses for significantly less.
Among others, Touchjet just might have found the sweet spot.
Earlier this year, the Bay Area-based company found success with their Touchjet Pond, a palm-sized device powered by Android KitKat that gives users the functionality of a projector combined with a tablet. Unlike similar palm-sized projectors, the Touchjet Pond is capable of turning any surface – whether it be a wall or a table surface – into a giant touchscreen.
Now, the company wants to do the same thing for TVs with their new Touchjet WAVE:
Using a combination of infrared technology and a proprietary Light Processing Unit (LPU), the WAVE is a peripheral that can attach to and turn any TV into a giant touchscreen device. When working in tandem with an iOS or Android app, the WAVE is capable of responding to finger, stylus and a remote app device seamlessly.
Among other uses for the device include turning a meeting room TV into an interactive brainstorming or presentation board or simply streaming media and browsing the web. Since the system is running Android, this also means that any app from Google Play should work without a hitch.
Of course, these are all things that the $20,000 Microsoft Surface Hub Displays can do too – however the WAVE is just $119 and can connect to any existing TV with a simple 3-step process that includes snapping the device to the top of the TV, connecting to an HDMI port and calibrating the device with a simple guided procedure.
Currently, the company has an active Indiegogo campaign for the device and have already raised nearly $350K by over 2,000 people in less than a week – with nearly a month to go in their campaign.
“We are using the Indiegogo platform to maintain transparency with our campaign: all the stats, numbers, deadlines and dollars raised are real,” the company explains. “We want you to know that we have the full support of the crowdfunding community to help keep us accountable.”
Considering that existing similar products can cost tens of thousands of dollars more, running the project through Indiegogo simply for the sake of transparency isn’t a bad decision on their part.
To find out more about the WAVE or to order your own, head over to the company’s Indiegogo page.
