Compact and portable are great attributes for something you always want to have on-hand. But when it comes to home entertainment, bigger tends to be better. And if you're looking for the ultimate tablet experience, soon "going big" and "going home" won't have to be a choice. The Touchjet Wave transforms your home television into a ginormous touchscreen tablet.
Touchjet is no stranger to crowdfunding or creating innovative ways to interact with Android. We've recently reviewed the Touchjet Pond, which combines a palm-sized micro projector, the Android system, and Touchjet's technology to transform surfaces into giant touchscreens. But the company's latest project, the Touchjet Wave, harnesses the powerful display of TVs while running Android 4.4 Kitkat OS and providing touch functionality.
With the included padded mount, the Touchjet Wave installs quickly to the top of TV screens up to 60 inches (152 cm) in size. Plug in the AC power and HDMI cables, and the Touchjet Wave is ready to go. The device has built-in wireless to connect to a home network, in order to download apps and access content. Other notable specs include: Bluetooth 4.0, a 2.0 GHz Quad-Core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, 1 GB DDR3 memory, 8 GB flash storage, two USB 2.0 host ports, and one Micro USB OTG port.
The Touchjet Wave uses infrared technology to track finger or stylus (included) movement and touch upon a television screen, translating it into commands understood by the Android system. All the games, apps, and streaming media that you would use on a smartphone or tablet can be enjoyed on the big screen. And with the mobile companion app, users can remotely control the Touchjet Wave from the comfort of a bed or couch.
Although the Indiegogo campaign has just launched, it's already raised US$20,392 of its $100,000 goal in four hours, with another 31 days left to go. The funding is flexible, so the team will receive all funds even if it doesn't reach its goal (doesn't appear to be a problem so far). If you act quickly, you can pledge for a Touchjet Wave for $99, which is 50 percent off the planned retail price.
If production and shipping proceeds smoothly, backers can anticipate deliveries to start sometime March, 2016. Check out the video below to see what the Touchjet Wave is capable of.