It’s not as high tech as the OmniTouch or the Sixthsense, but the Monolith case for the iPhone 4 is still innovative. Not only does it protect your phone, it also acts as an external battery pack and has a built-in projector. It can supersize the screen to up to 60″, although its maximum brightness is a paltry 12 lumens. Still, it could make playing games and watching videos on the iPhone 4 a lot easier.
The Monolith’s built-in 1900mAh battery can power the projector for up to 3 hours. Alternatively it can recharge the iPhone 4 up to 1.5 times its battery charge. Either way, you can use the projector without fear that you’ll drain your iPhone’s already precious juice. On the flip-side, this seems to imply that we shouldn’t expect smartphones to have built-in projectors anytime soon. Not if we want them to remain slim anyway.
Here’s a demo of the Monolith in action. Though you might want to turn the volume down or even mute the video altogether.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-8IULMKvMYI’m not sure if it’s just the video or if the projector’s quality just isn’t that good. It seems bright enough to be usable though. Unfortunately none of these pros and cons matter unless you live in Japan, where it’s being sold exclusively by Sirobako for ¥19,800 (~$260 USD). If someone can hack it and add a camera to detect input, voila – super-sized touchscreen.
