While there are options available for portable displays that allow you to offer a second screen for your laptop, how about being able to carry around a full-sized 24-inch display in your back pocket? Meet the Spontaneous Pop-Up Display (SPUD) from Arovia.
SPUD starts out about the size of an Apple TV, which means you really could tuck it away in your back pocket. Then, by simply unfolding the device, much like an umbrella, you wind up with a 24-inch high-resolution rear-projection screen that can receive input either through an HDMI cable or wirelessly, using the Intel’s WiDi protocol.
The monitor, exhibited at this week’s South By Southwest Festival (SXSW), weighs around 1.5 lb (about 0.68 kilograms), and when completely collapsed down, its measurements come in at around a quite compact 2.2 x 5.6 x 7.5 inches (about 5.6 x 14.2 x 19 cm). OK, so you probably won’t want to try and sit down with it in your back pocket, but it would fit. The SPUD will go from pocket-sized to desktop-size in about one second, says SPUD inventor Alexander Wesley.
The screen, made from a special special vinyl composite that is said to provide exceptional contrast and clarity, offers a 1280 x 720 resolution, which Wesley says will improve over future generations of the monitor.
Wesley came up with the idea while constantly traveling for his job as a product manager, as he found himself constantly becoming frustrated with the lack of available screen real estate to work on documents in his hotel room. He received funding to develop his idea via a National Science Foundation accelerator grant while at Rice University in Houston.
Wesley will launch a Kickstarter campaign in around a month or so, to raise funds to begin production of the SPUD. Wesley also notes that Google has also offered promotional assistance to himself and his four member Arovia team.
SPUD is expected to be available at retail around the $300 USD range. We’ll keep you posted.
