manyone designs 3D printed handheld projector minimax

manyone fuses open source tech and organic design

Shaped like a small gaming controller, Manyone’s Minimax is an interactive handheld projector wrapped in an organic 3D printed foam shell. Fusing industrial design with coding, the open source device introduces a human approach to tech to innovate a new interaction language. With an ergonomic form ensuring optimal user comfort, Minimax can be simply tilted by its user to activate and navigate the direction of its pico projector and create engaging visual experiences.

The prototype has been designed as part of a collaborative maker community exploring the power of open source hardware and innovative design. Through a process of hands-on testing and development, the Danish design studio integrates spatial and object tracking technologies including object recognition, sensors, and mobile user interfaces, allowing for high-tech innovation be achieved efficiently at a low-cost and fast pace.

equipped with a forward-facing pico projector | all images courtesy Manyone

an ergonomic projector with innovative interactivity

The Minimax projector was conceived as part of the OpenNext initiative — an EU funded program led by the Danish Design Centre with the aim of collaboratively exploring an open-source approach to hardware and business development. In response, design studio Manyone experiments with tech innovation to create a new language of interactive projection with Minimax.

From conception to realization, the team has designing the full experience including branding, business case, code, and industrial design. Each stage of the process has been logged on the open hardware platform Wikifactory to share progress and get input from the global community of makers. The final prototype, completed at the local Maker Space close to Manyone’s Copenhagen office, bridges the gap between iterative experimentation and refined design, leveraging the power of the collective open-tech community to foster ideas, share knowledge, and remove the siloed walls around classical hardware development.

a ‘friendly’ and organic shell with a form that bring a human approach to tech

‘The future of hardware is connected. We’re rapidly moving into a new age of hardware development. One where global collaboration, rapid prototyping and optimized use of materials can compete with even the heaviest of industries. This is enabled by the open-tech movement. Also known as ‘the maker’ movement, the open-tech movement democratizes access to tools for hardware development,’ writes the team at Manyone.

by tilting the projector or pressing a series of buttons, the interactions can be controlled