In order to get the Stuff team’s attention, you either have to have something quite powerful, quite novel or you have to be holding very short charging cables (long story). Pix, a backpack being funded on Kickstarter, is the middle one — a novel idea that we’re quite taken with.
And that’s perhaps because Pix is an idea that doesn’t have much of a practical application. It’s a backpack that’ll hold most of your tech (provided you’re not running around with an iStore’s inventory on your back): a 15in notebook, a tablet, a couple of phones, cables, and an assortment of extras. But Pix also connects to your smartphone via an app. Why? So you can change the image on the back of the backpack, of course.
Pix has a panel of lights buried under the fabric and those lights can be configured to show emoji, words, pictures, or plain old pixel art. That’s the whole gimmick — it’s basically the mask that Wrench from Watch_Dogs 2 wears in backpack form. Except you can also play games on it (like Tetris or Snake), if you like. And we’re totally in love with it.
Pix has the option to load pre-set images or allows for the creation images of your own artwork using the included smartphone app (which is available for both iOS and Android). Or you could opt for a more free-form visualiser setting, for when you want every guy on ‘shrooms at the music festival to aimlessly follow you around.
And, based on the test video above, the Pix should survive a weekend at Oppi. It’ll almost certainly do better than the person wearing it or any breakable contents inside but you should be able to happily blow minds until the power-bank operating it runs out of juice. It shrugs off warping and water, which might make it handy for cycling. There’s even a controller planned that would allow you to use it as an indicator while out on a bike ride. Handy.
If you’re as excited by this customisable backpack as we are, you’d best make your way over to its Kickstarter page. Pix’s creators were only looking for $35,000 and they’re set to blow by that total in short order. They might even manage it before we finish typing this. But if you want your own, expect to pay at least $200 (R2,900 or so) in order to secure one of the first to roll off the assembly line.
