Mermaid in the shell
By Andrew Gregory. Posted
We’re used to the post-apocalyptic designs of most cyberdecks: rugged aluminium or pelican cases, chunky battery packs, cool green-on-black scrolling text, Matrix-style. What we have here is something different. Instead of running around the burned out remains of a power station or hiding from killer robots, the owner of this cyberdeck is more likely to be found under the sea, hanging out with a friendly singing crab called Sebastian.
Bimbotech’s Claudia has always wanted to put a computer in a Polly Pocket toy. With this compact build, she’s pretty much done just that. The pink clamshell clutch purse that she’s chosen to house the cyberdeck doesn’t have a great deal of room in it, so she’s used a Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+ – this was the last of the square Raspberry Pi computers, and takes up even less space than the rectangular boards. A 3.5-inch touchscreen, ZitaoTech BB Q10 Bluetooth keyboard and touchpad, and a 3000mAh battery pack complete the electronics.
With just 512MB of RAM, the Raspberry Pi model Claudia chose doesn’t have enough oomph for a graphical operating system, but it’s fine for the command line – she says on her blog that she’s planning to upgrade the battery to 10000mAh, which should be enough to power a 12-hour shift of ocean-floor hacking.
Features Editor Andrew trawls the internet for Cool Stuff while keeping the magazine running smoothly.
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