It's a new type of Daft Punk helmet, no its Wall-E, no it's a hunched Roomba, no its KEECKER, the future of home entertainment.

Designed by former Google product manager Pierre Lebeau, KEECKER is a mobile Android-powered robot that can be synced with your smartphone and projects the content of your inbox onto any wall or even the ceiling.

KEECKER is not like any regular projector, it's cordless, when fully charged its battery works good for about a week, easily moves around the house and its speakers blast sound in 360°.

You can access content from anywhere, your email inboxes, Facebook profiles or HBO GO. The first KEECKER will be able to map out your house, once done you can apply label to the parts of your house and instruct KEECKER to go wherever you want inside your house.

According to Pierre, the idea for KEECKER came to him one fine day when he was riding his motorbike and with a team of five people, he built KEECKER to fulfill his own entertainment wishes. "KEECKER is truly mobile enabling you and your family to enjoy the highest quality entertainment wherever you want at home but also discover new ways of thinking about content, with no more constraints or limitations. KEECKER is opening a new dimension, merging the physical and the digital worlds for the first time."

To know more about KEECKER we got in touch with Pierre and here's what he told us:

Happy reading!

1. Hello Pierre, please introduce yourself to our readers.

Hi, my name is Pierre Lebeau, I'm the founder and CEO of KEECKER.

I founded KEECKER in 2012, right after leaving Google where I was Product Manager since 2005. At Google, I managed products internationally such as Google Voice, Gmail, Google Earth, worked on the launch of Google Analytics and several advertising products including mobile ads. I spent time working on Google.org projects and created the largest screen in the world with Google Earth as a 20% project.

Before that I was a product manager at realestate.com.au (News Corp) and Trellian.com.

2. How did the concept of the KEECKER come about? What was the inspiration for it?

The inspiration behind KEECKER came from the founder Pierre Lebeau, who was frustrated by living in a house with too many cables, too many non-compatible devices and too many ugly screens, all of which provided individual solutions but were not connected to others, resulting in an unconnected and frustrating experience. He doesn't believe that we should be forced to compromise either on content, quality or autonomy.

KEECKER is dedicated to make your life better, to bring a world where we can live in a home without cables and big ugly black boxes in every room. We wanted to create a device where content can be accessible and visible anywhere, a device that could turn people's imagination into reality, a device which works to simplify your life while creating an element of visual magic at the same time. KEECKER is the result of that vision.

3. Is the KEECKER autonomous in its movement? Can it navigate across the obstacles in a house automatically?

KEECKER moves around your house on wheels and is controlled through your smartphone (iOS & Android). Remotely, you can see through KEECKER's Eyes (via the camera) and move it around and across the obstacles in your house.



KEECKER is equipped with a smart video projection system that will auto adjust the keystone of your image as you move the projection, taking the complexity out of the technology. The projector moves (90° angle) so you can project and see the images in front of you or on the ceiling.

We've included the best in class projection system (1000 lumens) that can give you a 42” image when located 2 feet away from that wall: that means a huge screen anywhere you want. Image size depends on where KEECKER is, how far it is from the surface it projects on. If you get 42” at 2 feet, imagine the size of the image when displayed on your ceiling? The possibilities are endless.

5. Tell us about some of the technical innovations in the KEECKER. Please be as detailed as possible.

We had to make a computer move around, add a lot of mechanical movements, sensors and other types of components that never existed together: that itself is a challenge.

We wanted a great quality and bright image: not a small gadget (pico) projector, a real home theatre projector. But you never see these running on battery: they need too much power: we found a way... we are the brightest mobile projecting system in the world. Also, anyone that has used a projector knows it is loud, very hot: we made KEECKER extremely quiet and cold (cool, but literarily: that doesn't warm up).

We also worked a lot on sound to create a real 360° stereo surround sound even though the device is only one block and therefore sound like a mono speaker: but not anymore... our 360° sound system gives you a real stereo effect and we're going to make it even smarter..

Same with the camera, our 360° camera is amazing allowing KEECKER to see all around it without moving. No consumer product have this ability, our users will love it.

But overall, every aspect of the product that thought about in a different way, starting from a blank page because nothing like KEECKER existed before we had to create technology that could match this new format, its movement, its projection abilities (sound and image).

One main innovation to me is the design. I wanted to make a device that was no longer a black shinny cheap looking box.

Rectangles are not natural, nothing is rectangular in nature; yet we are surrounded by rectangles: I had enough.

As KEECKER is for the home, it had to be beautiful, smooth, soft. I wanted a more organic design. I started with the shape of an egg, somehow the origin of it all, and gradually we got to today's design.



To have what you can see today, we spent 18 months sketching, testing, developing, designing and building it. A lot of work, but quite quick for such a big hardware product. We wanted to take the experience we gained in making software and applying it to hardware: building fast, iterating, testing, breaking, starting again. So far so good.

We had lots of issues of course, because this type of device didn't exist; we had no comparison to make, no standard to improve: we started with a blank page. This was an amazing opportunity and chance for us to do exactly what we wanted, be creative, be crazy. But at the same time it opened an infinite amount of potentials, of choices.

Today, if you want to build a tablet or a smartphone, millions of parts exist just for this, it's actually fairly easy now. But building a moving computer with a super bright projector that stays cool, controlled via WiFi with a great sound and video system: not that standard, so not that easy. We had to find the right components, test and test again, make hard decisions, but never compromise. We also had to build and think of new types of software and combine a lot of open source protocols in order to have a very easy, yet powerful interaction.

7. What sort of controls can be performed by an iOS/Android device on the KEECKER? Can you also install apps on the KEECKER?

KEECKER itself operates on Android, therefore, like on any Android device, you can install any App you want on it.

You do this from your own smartphone or tablet, whether is it Android or iOS: this is your KEECKER controller: the way you can connect and interact with KEECKER, but KEECKER itself has apps and runs them.

So any app you find on Google Play Store will run on KEECKER, this means you can do pretty much anything you want with it, play games, watch any content, listen to music, etc...

But the coolest aspect is that we'll open to developers when we release the product, meaning that some creative people will be able to take advantage of KEECKER's unique abilities (movement, autonomy, projection, 360 camera and sound...) to create or adapt apps. It could be an app to chase the cat, but it could be something for education for businesses, for security, for games... we can't even think of all the amazing new apps that will come out and change people's life even more. We're really excited about this and already are interested in hearing from developers, designers, anyone with great ideas.

From your phone app, you can move KEECKER you can make it play its content, play and use any of its apps. You can also check information about your home (temperature, air quality, humidity, light level etc..), you can see its camera and make him move...

Your phone is your own remote interactive screen for KEECKER.

8. When you are not working on the KEECKER project, how do you like to spend your spare time? What do you find most rejuvenating?

KEECKER has taken a lot of my time in the past 18 months... but when I can, I love travelling. I've had the chance to see a lot of the world, and there is still so much to see... On a more day to day basis, I spend a lot of time with my family and close friends, around great food (I'm French after all). And to unwind, I usually get hooked on Series that I like to watch a season at a time.

9. What are your future plans for the KEECKER? Do you plan to add any enhancements to its functionality?

This is just the beginning. The possibilities are so broad... I have a list of maybe 100 things I want to do, add, make possible.

First of all though, we need to ship KEECKER and let people discover a new way to live with technology at home and that is quite a unique and amazing opportunity, so this is what we are all working towards.

10. What lessons have you learnt during the development of the KEECKER and what message would you like to pass on to the next generation of budding and aspiring entrepreneurs?

The day you can't sleep anymore because you're too excited about your idea: you're ready, drop everything and go.

You must feel this, know this, touch this, it must be in your vains. If that's the case, I'm sure you'll succeed. So don't compromise, don't listen to people that don't believe in your idea, keep focus, surround yourself with enthusiasts that are passionate about what you do.

But be prepared: highs will be very high and few, lows, will be very very very low and many.
Read the Art of Start from Guy Kawasaki: you'll have it all.


Pierre, thanks for such an extensive interview. It was a great experience learning about you and KEECKER. Wish you good luck!

FYI KEECKER might soon launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund it and is expected to ship to buyer by the end of 2014. The estimated retail price for the video projector robot is between $4,000 to $5,000.

Stay tuned with E-junkie for more of such inspiring product stories.