Raspberry Pi Projector Helps Students Learn Through Quarantine
To help Indian children learn in small clusters, Subir Bhaduri developed pπ, which is a Raspberry Pi-based projection system for education.
The pandemic and quarantines have been difficult for all of us, but they are especially hard on children. Many kids are entering their third year without the ability to attend traditional schools. In many countries, such as the United States, schools saw success with remote learning alternatives. But those require access to a computer and a high-speed internet connection — something only about 10 percent of Indian children have. To help those kids learn in small clusters, Subir Bhaduri developed pπ, which is a Raspberry Pi-based projection system for education.
The idea here is that groups of five or six students will share pπ for their lessons. They can carry the entire portable unit to a location where there is a good internet connection and plug it into an outlet. The projector provides a display large enough for the entire group to see and there is a mouse and keyboard built into the box for loading up digital lessons. When closed, the entire device is about the size of a small toolbox, so it is easy to store in a safe location between uses. This represents a dramatic improvement over the current solution, which involves multiple kids crowding around a single smartphone.
Cost is the most important consideration for a device like this, which is why Bhaduri turned to Raspberry Pi. pπ uses a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B single-board computer, which is affordable and also powerful enough for viewing video lessons. A budget LCD projector acts as the display. Bhaduri doesn't specify the exact model used, but these kinds of projects cost less than $40 USD, even in the United States. Add in the cost of a power supply, keyboard, and mouse, and you arrive at a cost of around $100 in the US — and significantly less in India. The final cost is the enclosure, which is a custom sheet metal design. Bhaduri is currently working on simplifying the enclosure design to make it more affordable to manufacture.
At this time, three units are in the testing phase in The Door Step School in Pune, Maharashtra, India.