Giant TV screens are pretty great. Tablets are pretty great. But controlling a tablet’s touch interface on your TV is a terrible, garbage experience.
You can use a gamepad, but it won’t be able to handle touch-only apps. You could look down at a tethered tablet, but then you wouldn’t be looking at the TV — kind of defeating the point. What if there was a better way? Then, according to some folks on Kickstarter, you’d have something called ZRRO.
Remember Ouya, that goofy Android-powered game console that failed to meet everyone’s expectations? ZRRO is just like that: a compelling promise to bring Android gaming to the living room that probably isn’t going to be half as good as it looks — but man, it looks pretty good. The difference is mostly the controller.
ZRRO’s “hoverpad” controller is essentially a fancy touchpad, but it uses special software to track and display the position of the user’s fingers on the TV screen — even before they actually touch the surface of the pad itself. It’s supposed to give you a relative awareness of where your fingers are, eliminating the need to look down at the controller.
If it works, it could make playing touchscreen games in the living room actually bearable! If it doesn’t work? Well, it won’t be the first Android TV console to let us down. [Kickstarter]