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With so much talent in the channel, it can be difficult to sift out the freshest gear and potential tech giants of tomorrow. Stay ahead of the curve with PCR’s Crowdfunding Corner.
The Keyboardio Atreus
(pictured above)
The Keyboardio Atreus is a real mechanical keyboard, with full-travel keyswitches mounted in an anodized aluminum plate and the same generous 19mm key spacing you’ll find on a traditional desktop keyboard.
Inside, it’s powered by a Microchip ATmega32U4 MCU, the same chip that’s inside an Arduino Leonardo and a Keyboardio Model 01. It comes with firmware source code, as well as a graphical configuration tool. It connects to your computer or tablet over USB.
Unlike most mechanical keyboards, the Keyboardio Atreus measures just 24.3 x 10 x 2.8cm (9.6 x 3.9 x 1.1 inches), making it easy to take your keyboard with you everywhere.
The Atreus’ layout puts all the keys in columns aligned to your fingers, so you never need to stretch or twist to reach a key. The keys are the same size as on a regular desktop keyboard, but they’re laid out in a much more compact way that matches how your hands work. Everything you need is easy to reach, and since the keyboard is so compact, your mouse or trackball is closer, too.
Rather than being arranged in rows like a typewriter, the Atreus’ keys are arranged in columns, with each column just right for the finger that hits it.
For more information visit: http://kck.st/3b0PEsA
Frame.IoT Arduino-compatible Wi-Fi dev kit
The Frame.IoT is an Arduino-compatible board built for your Internet of Things projects and ships with the most popular components built-in – voted by the community.
Powered by the ESP-32, the Frame.IoT is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) enabled. It is packed with a number of plug-and-play utilities, including USB-to-Serial converter, automatic bootloader reset and Lithium Ion/Polymer battery charging circuit.
To make it project-ready, the Frame.IoT has a microSD card socket for all your data logging/storage needs, a super powerful digital audio amp to stream audio over the internet and blast notifications, a 16-pixel addressable RGB LED ring to light up your project, a toggle that lets you choose to power your peripherals over USB or battery, and an unencumbered momentary push-button to trigger any action you choose.
If your prototype doesn’t need some of the components built-in to the Frame.IoT – no worries, as each component is connected via jumper pins. Simply remove the corresponding jumpers and you’ll free up the I/O for anything you want.
For more information visit: http://kck.st/2QI8CMV
Astro Slide 5G Transformer
Astro Slide is the first 5G smartphone with a keyboard and claims to be the fastest 5G device announced to date.
Powered by MediaTek’s Dimensity 1000 chipset with 8 super-fast cores plus advanced GPU and APU processors, it offers twice the performance of other 5G chipsets with significantly reduced power consumption, achieving download speeds of up to 4.7 Gb/s with dual 5G modems.
Astro’s RockUp slider hinge transforms the powerful 6.53” touchscreen smartphone into a mini laptop, featuring Planet’s signature tactile backlit keyboard.
Astro Slide Is great for emails, messaging, editing documents, making calls and taking snaps. Astro’s dual 5G and Wi-Fi 6 communications offer fastest upload and download speeds for true productivity on the go. Astro Slide runs Android 10 OS with a multi- boot option for supporting Linux.
Other specs include a hi-res 48MP rear camera, minimum 6GB of RAM and 128GB of Flash storage, fingerprint sensor and smart toggle button for security and control, and NFC for payment.
For more information visit: https://igg.me/at/gogoastro/x#/
SenseForce Chair Extreme
Four years ago, iFeel Tactile Systems aimed to bring a “new sensation experience into the entertainment world by making sound feelable directly on your body”.
The team – made up of musicians, gamers, engineers and managers – started to develop and produce its first product in 2016: The SenseForce Pad Extreme, a mobile device which can be used on any seating furniture to let you feel sound directly on your body.
For gamers who want to immerse themselves physically in the world of video games, the team has now launched a kickstarter for the integration of the Sound Feel System into the SenseForce Chair- Extreme and the SenseForce Chair Extreme XL.
The tech combines the look and feel of a comfortable gaming chair with the innovative Sound Feel System, which lets you feel sound while playing any game on any device.
The SenseForce Sound System converts acoustic signals into tangible impulses. This works via four vibrating zones, which primarily translate low-pitched sounds into structure-borne sound. Your brain assembles the impulses of the four zones in such a way that you can locate the game contents on your body in any direction.
For more information visit: http://kck.st/3a5nXyU
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