Nick Mo from the YouTube show Work From Hype likes to turn his home office into a playground for wild ideas. His latest creation is the Glow Desk, which uses an overhead projector to turn a plain wooden desk into a dynamic, interactive display.
Mo started with a simple question: what if a desk could do more than just hold your coffee mug and computer? He wanted a workspace where the surface itself could show relevant information – to-do lists, calendars, system stats – without cluttering the desk with extra gadgets. To test this, he used a spare unboxing table, which was a good idea in case things went wrong and he didn’t want to mess up his main setup. A Beelink tiny PC running Windows 11 was the brain of the operation, along with an articulating arm attached to the wall that was originally meant for studio lights but was repurposed to hold a projector. The setup was simple: the PC sent signals to a display and a projector which projected digital items onto the surface below.
Mo had to think outside the box to make the Glow Desk stand out. He created a custom wallpaper in Photoshop that had a bright box around his keyboard and mouse, leaving the rest of the image dark so that the projector could only illuminate specific places. This provided the desk a sleek modern appearance, with the projected light merging in with his peripherals. To make the desk functional, he used Rainmeter, a Windows app for making desktop widgets. He chose the Mterrey skin for its clean minimal look which includes widgets for a calendar, notes, weather updates, system performance, a Pomodoro timer and music controls. These appeared in nice frames on the desk looking like a digital dashboard come to life.
Mo’s first projector, a budget one with 720p resolution, couldn’t show clear lettering and several widgets like the notes area were almost unreadable. Its dim output made him have to darken the room which was straining his eyes and reminded him of the limitations of the setup. Enter Valerion, a company that saw potential in Mo’s idea and sent him their 4K laser projector, the VisionMaster Pro 2. This was a game changer. With nine times the resolution of the previous projector, writing was crisper and the brighter output allowed him to keep the room lit, making the setup much more practical. He could also experiment with more creative uses like pinning tutorial videos for making mechanical keyboards or displaying mood boards for sketching.
One of the coolest things was Mo’s use of Fancy Zones, a Windows PowerToys tool that allowed him to pin windows to the surface of the desk. He could place content (a YouTube tutorial or design inspiration board) exactly where he needed it, without shining light on his hands or keyboard. He also designed custom screensavers with Adobe After Effects and Wallpaper Engine, so when he wasn’t working, his desk became a visual canvas, with animations flowing around his peripherals. These details turned the Glow Desk from a proof of concept to something that felt finished, even though it was still experimental.
Moving the desk even slightly throws off the projector’s alignment and requires a full recalibration of the whole setup. The system demands a 4K display which taxes the mini PC. Then there’s the cost: Mo started with a $300-$500 projector, the Valerion 4K is a home theater device, way more expensive than most would justify for a desk experiment. The projector’s lifespan is another concern, designed for occasional movie nights, not 40 hour workweeks, it might not hold up to constant use. And let’s not forget the elephant in the room: a 5 foot metal arm sticking out of the wall, holding an expensive projector, isn’t exactly a practical addition to most offices.
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