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Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what's playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces.
"Pico projectors" that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.
Microvision Inc., a small (1) Redmond, Washington, company, was at the CTIA Wireless industry show to demonstrate a prototype of its projector. It's about the size of two full-size iPods, but by the time it goes on sale later this year, it should be about 30 percent smaller, said Russell Hannigan, the company's director of projector product management.
In a darkened room, the prototype beamed out surprisingly bright, crisp and large video from a connected iPod Nano: With the projector held 6 feet (1.83 meters) away from the wall, the image measured 6 feet (1.83 meters) diagonally and was as sharp as a DVD.
On the brightly lit showroom floor, the image was less impressive, but projected on a piece of paper held a foot away, it still made for a nice alternative to the iPod Nano's screen, which is slightly larger than a stamp.
The company is also working on a projector so small that it can be built into cell phones. That could be available in the second half of 2009. Because a cell phone already contains a battery and some of the other electronics that are necessary, this unit can be simpler and cheaper — Tokman estimates it would increase the price of a cell phone by $100 (euro64).
"The two things people are buying now are cell phones and big-screen TVs," Hannigan said. "This brings those two together." ■AP
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