Amongst the omnipresent marketing at SXSW were a tool I've not seen used for advertising before: pico projectors. Any flat surface in Austin that wasn't already covered in posters and flyers could quickly be turned into a film trailer or game demo thanks to backpack mounted projectors. Temporary digital screens & billboards that could move and follow the crowds.

Pico projectors are tiny video projectors the size of a mobile phone with a few hours battery life. They can plug into mobile phones, tablets or laptops and are handy for watching films whilst travelling or giving small presentations.

"someone was using it to watch a movie from their iPhone projected onto the back of the seat in front of them - and instantly had the feeling that I was seeing something from the future. The PK201 is more than twice as bright/featured in about the same size. You can basically project a 70" HD display from a laptop, iPhone/iPodTouch, or a preloaded micro-SD card. Very bright and easily viewable in any dark venue. As with any "future" device, especially one that will so brightly visually affect your environment and people around you, it may take some awkward experimentation to work out the social conventions of using a personal projector in public"

As Tantek points out in his SXSW packing list the social norms around using these projectors in public are still being figured out. They're largely a novelty now but might become annoying in future, similar to playing music out loud from a mobile.

There are some lovely recent applications of Pico Projectors. Little Memories combines old home movies with miniatures and is currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter.

Using miniatures seems a common use with mini projectors, such as in Living Film Set which was a part of the last Theatre Sandbox. Meanwhile another Theatre Sandbox project, Give Me Back My Broken Night, also used pico projectors but this time making them wearable. The projectors create a live updating map on a piece of paper held in front of you which changes as you talk and move around. Only a year before this was the kind of implementation only seen in an academic research environment such as in MIT's Sixth Sense project. There's a flow of technology over time from research to the arts and then to advertising as it becomes more accessible.

So what technology is currently at the research stage that might be interesting to play with? Quadcopter's are one. They're small, cheap flying vehicles that can be made autonomous. They can be bought in shops and have an enthusiastic DIY community around them. Here's a look at some of the things they can currently do in a lab environment.

Juggling:

Building Construction: