Meet Cubiio, a laser engraver that can fit in your backpack

“Cubiio provides everyone with a glimpse of different ways of living,” Sandy Huang, who handles marketing for Cubiio, told Digital Trends. “People can customize their items in under a few minutes with a simple [tap] on a smartphone. Makers and designers are allowed to experiment with more possibilities than ever. With Cubiio, you can easily engrave or cut paper, leather, wood, plastic, and acrylic. We’ve even tried engraving on the surface of pancakes and macarons!”

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The device consists of a semiconductor laser source and two current-driven mirrors which deflect the laser beam along the ‘X’ and ‘Y’ axis. An embedded CPU translates your sketches of engravings-to-be into digital commands to tilt the mirrors at the perfect angle. “To shrink a huge laser machine into your palm is definitely a challenging task,” Huang said. “Starting from scratch, we have designed and tested many prototypes to solve lots of technical problems, such as image distortion and thermal issues.” The problem of image distortion is handled via a custom-designed anti-distortion algorithm.

Cubiio has only been up on Kickstarter for a matter of days, but already it has blown past its funding goal — with $945,372 already pledged against its initial target $25,000. The basic model can be pre-ordered for $379, with higher tiers also available with a protective shield. Shipping will start in November.