How a Raspberry Pi can help your business to make the most of a small office
There are various possible explanations for why your workspace is relatively compact. Perhaps your finances have forced you to rent a small office, or you are working from home and the part of it where you have opted to conduct work was never originally intended to facilitate it.
The bottom line is, whatever the reason(s) for your office’s modest dimensions, the miniature computer known as the Raspberry Pi can surprisingly serve as the basis for pieces of clever kit in that workspace. For example, a Pi could…
Act as the CPU for a desktop PC
MUO acknowledges that the results you get will depend on which Pi model you use. According to the site, the 2019 Raspberry Pi 4 “makes an excellent desktop replacement for productivity purposes”, as it has “the power you need for word processing and other office tasks”.
However, the Pi 3 can also suffice as a desktop — and The Pi Hut’s Raspberry Pi Store stocks an official Raspberry Pi keyword-and-mouse set compatible with the Pi 3B and Pi 4B.
Breathe new life into an old printer
Let’s assume that you are working from home, and the only printer you have there is an old one lacking support for wireless printing.
Fortunately, you can make even a USB printer wireless by connecting it to a wireless-enabled Raspberry Pi before installing the CUPS print server software. It can take you just minutes to make your device capable of printing via Apple AirPrint and Google Cloud Print.
Be built into a wall-mounted calendar
Staying organised is crucial to working productively. One especially space-efficient device you could use for helping to keep yourself on track is a wall-mounted digital calendar that syncs with Google, allowing you to see your scheduled meetings and deadlines at a glance.
TechRepublic admits that this Pi project “takes a smattering of DIY skills as it requires securing a monitor to a wall or — if you’re feeling particularly creative — fitting your display of choice into a bespoke frame.” The site thus advises that you “start simple and see how you get on.”
Serve as a web server
SEO consultant Daniel Foley tells The Enterprisers Project that, though the Raspberry Pi can have multiple purposes, “some of the best for businesses are using it as a web server or as a bot for social media.”
Foley enthuses: “Having this small machine as the backbone of your website is incredible, and having automated content sent to your followers so that related content can be shared even when no-one is in the office is incredibly powerful.”
Secure the office door
For an idea of how a Pi could help you to do this, heed the following words The Enterprisers Project has quoted from Dr J Ghorbani of the software developer training provider DevelopIntelligence.
“We built a face detection algorithm that communicated with Raspberry Pi in real time to capture images of the people entering the room. If the AI algorithm did not recognise the person, it asked Raspberry Pi to lock the door.”
