I find it amazing how some of the best new ideas end up in Kickstarter programmes when some larger companies seem to have run out of ideas and don’t seem to know what to do next. It’s extended title is Raspberry Pi Laptop & STEM Education Platform which looks like an amazing attempt to make the Raspberry Pi more accessible and indeed more usable for youngsters and developers alike.
As a little background, the Raspberry Pi, according to it’s website, is tiny, dual-display, desktop computer, or to be a little more specific, it’s a single board computer with an array of interfaces that literally fits into the palm of your hand, uses very little power, runs without fans other other noise making paraphernalia and costs next to nothing (compared to a traditional computer).
Early versions if the Pi were great for developers working on embedded projects and for people learning to work with computers and in particular computerised electronic projects, but you were still working essentially with a PCB and lots of wires. The CrowPi2 is turning that on it’s head a little by embedding the Pi in a laptop shell along with a whole host of sensors and other hardware and software tools which, although still giving you access to a raw Pi, wrap it up in a much more manageable package.
Having worked with versions 1 and 2 of the Pi on an embedded controller project, looking at the facilities they’ve bundled into the laptop it certainly looks like at the very least it would have saved a fair bit of hair-tearing and desk space management issues.
The video is 3m, it’s a sales pitch, but worth a watch if you’re working with embedded systems or in the Educational system. If you want to take a look in more detail, the kickstarter project page is here.
Until very recently it’s only been available to Project sponsors, if anyone has one of these we’d love to hear how it’s going!
