Swing-Arm Touchscreen
In February 2009, a company called Mimo started offering a really neat little toy: a 7-inch USB-connected monitor with touchscreen and webcam. A friend of mine pointed them out to me, and I thought they were really neat. So I ordered one.
Within a few weeks, it had arrived. These monitors are pretty cool little gadgets. Entirely powered over USB, integrated web cam, touch screen, and 800x480 resolution LCD panel. You might think, as I did, that a USB-based video card would be terribly slow, but there is absolutely no lag. Installation was a breeze and I'm pretty happy with it.
But what to do with it? I already have a larger touchscreen by my doorway... I spent several days trying to think of good uses for this little screen. Finally, after hitting the wrong keyboard shortcut on my media center keyboard for the 8 millionth time, I came up with the idea of an auxilliary touchscreen placed where I usually watch TV. I cannabalized an IKEA lamp, made some changes to the software that's already running on my bigger touchscreen, and pretty soon I came up with this:
A closer look at the main interface: It's sorta slapped together in this version.
The in-depth Lighting Controls page:
Also integrates with my security cameras and doorbuzzer system:
I've got a lot more ideas for what this screen can do for me, so this is just the beginning!