Beam Smart Projector
Disguised as a lightbulb fixture, this gadget is a whole lot more
What if you could program a device to start projecting a video of a calm, quiet shoreline—as your alarm—to help ease you into the day? Or have a social media notification report pop up on your living room wall as soon as you walk through the door? The passionate engineers behind Beam are trying to put these technocratic capabilities in the palm of your hands, with their highly adaptable, intuitively designed smart projector.
Currently funding on Kickstarter, Beam has all of the expected capabilities of the personal portable projector, like blowing up movies and images from a smartphone. However, Beam transcends current models on the market with its IF/THEN programming module, which allows users to command exactly how the Beam will act based on a set of preset triggers. If, for instance, you routinely walk out the door at 9:15AM, you can program the Beam to display the weather report every day at 9AM so you don’t have to stop during your morning rush to check the status yourself—just look up, and grab a coat or umbrella as needed. And while the Beam Team has a pretty good sense about what users would want their projectors to do, they are inviting campaign backers to throw in ideas of their own. “There is no limit to human imagination. That’s why we asked the Kickstarter community to join an IF/THEN competition to give us their best ideas and we will add the best of those,” says Beam Team member Don Molenaar. “And there is no limit to the IFs you can combine to trigger a THEN. So the possibilities are endless.”
Function aside, the Beam’s lightbulb fixture configuration can screw into any ordinary socket, seamlessly integrating the projector into any space. “We wanted to create a projector that can be a part of your interior without being noticed on a first glance,” explains Molenaar. “We thought of all the things that we could do with that, such as using it in your kitchen, above your dining table, or in your bedroom to watch TV on your ceiling.” On top of that, the Beam also includes an LED light, so it can be used as simple analogue lighting for your home or office. “It feels like a modern lamp, but when you look closer you notice there is more to this lamp than you thought.”
Donate $369 or more to Beam’s Kickstarter campaign to become an early adopter.
Images courtesy of Beam
