Mobile Phone Projectors "Will Launch This Year" 168
An anonymous reader writes "Mobile phones with built-in mini projectors will launch later this year, according to 3M, which gave PC Pro a hands-on demonstration of the technology at CES 2008. The projector has a brightness of around 8-10 lumens, and is capable of displaying an image of up to 50 in., although 3M's spokesperson Greg Roberts told us that, with perfect lighting conditions, it's possible to squeeze a 60-in. screen out of the projector."
8- 10 lumins? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:8- 10 lumins? (Score:4, Interesting)
8- 10 inches? (Score:4, Funny)
Are you sure you're not just happy to see me?
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Re:8- 10 lumins? (Score:5, Interesting)
My Nokia N95 has a 5 MegaPixel camera which produces some pretty good quality photos and video. It is hard to appreciate this quality on the 3"ish screen so having a projector would be a nice feature. No idea when I'd use it though, I can hardly imagine whipping out the projector at work or uni to show my mates my oh so cool pics. But this is the first time I've had a phone that does more than just do calls and texts, on a recent holiday I must've taken about 500 pics on the 4GB microSD card in it. Mobile phones are becoming very nice indeed imo.
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Imagine those big pixels at 50". It certainly wouldn't be able to show anything like the 5mp images your phone can take.
This technology would be better made into a separate unit that can plug into a compatible phone.
When the resolution improves to even 0.8mp or 1.2mp then we are talking about something that is actually useful.
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Does yours work in the dark? I know mine I typically want to use it at the bar, which is indoors and at night.
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I think I'm regressing technology wise. The higher I move up the corporate food chain the less use I have for widgets. I just traded my Treo 7XX (whatever it was) for a Motorola W385. I never used anything but the phone and contacts on the Treo and it seemed better suited to some young whippersnapper who would use everything on it. I'm more interested in simple use and strong, solid signal and in addition I don't want to be looking at emails all times of
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Umm, have you ever tried _looking_ at photos on a typical cell phone screen?
How about showing on to a group of people?
No matter what resolution we might get, they remain _small_.
If you can get fair quality and resolution on a monitor-sized surface,
its a whole different world. I think it would be a hit for exactly
the same reasons that camera phones have been.
Hell, even pure digital cameras would would about double their usefulness
with something li
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Don't those count?
I guess I should have explicitly said wasn't talking about art photography. Since we were in the territory of camera phones, i was thinking about the everyday cameras that most people use.
The artistic merit may vary, but the main reason they take pictures (besides remembering) is t
Missing the point.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember polyphonic ringtones? Were they "quality" music? Nope, but we all secretly wanted them.
The gadget power of having a phone-projector is orders of magnitude more than a polyphonic ringtone. This thing will sell millions no matter how bad the image quality is.
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As for the projector, I'm not sure how an 8-10 lumens projector will look. I have my doubts, but I'll take a look when they reach market.
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No, I didn't and don't want polyphonic ringtones. I want loud MIDI-like ringtones that cut through crowd noise, music I'm listening to, and other sounds.
Loud MIDI-like ringtones that cut through everything _are_ polyphonic ringtones. The only difference is that monophonic ringtones sound like Casiotone, and polyphonic ringtones just sound nicer, but with the same clarity.
I don't want to hear a catchy chorus of a song for a ringtone, just as I don't want "clever" quotes from popular tv shows for my computer sounds.
That would be wav or mp3 ringtones.
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Perhaps the parent needed sarcasm tags, just for you?
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Only until the first complaints about poor battery life come in. Once people realize you can only project images (or whatever) for 5 minutes and still have a usable phone, sales will fall off immediately. Unless they've also come up with a huge improvement in battery life, this won't sell very much. Not to mention most people won't hav
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I can see it now... (Score:2, Funny)
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Needs moar lumins?
What is a lumin anyway? Some sort of cross between a loofah and a human?
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"The SI unit of luminous flux, equal to the amount of light emitted per second in a unit solid angle of one steradian from a uniform source of one candela."
A small AA battery maglite has 15.2 lumens average, so it's brighter than a small flashlight... if that floats your boat, er lights your night.
a basic tutorial (Score:5, Informative)
A 'normal' candle produces about 15 lumens. Incandescent bulbs (normal lightbulbs) produce about 15-18 lumens *PER WATT*. So this projector is roughly equivalent to
Now, there are claims of a 50" projection (diagonal, I assume) from this-- no specification as to how far from the projection source the 'screen' is, but light works on the inverse square law-- basically, as you double the distance from a given light source, you get a square root of intensity. So if this sucker threw 10FC at 1 foot, at 2 feet that intensity has dropped to 3.2. At 4 feet, 1.8. So if that 50" screen requires you to be 8 feet back.. forget about it.
Overall, this sounds like a cool little geek gadget, but as other posters have said, probably just another example of cellphones trying to do too much (too poorly
Apologies if I screwed up any of my tutorial, as I said, I don't paint directly with light, I just admire the guys who do.
"Perfect lighting conditions" (Score:2)
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Re:a basic tutorial (Score:4, Insightful)
All that matters here is light output divided by the square inches of the screen. Assuming that this screen has a 4:3 aspect ratio and produces a 50" diagonal image, that means it produces 1200 sq in of image. This gives 10 lumens / 1200 sq in =
I have no idea though if that's a lot or a little.
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This is not correct. The inverse square law applies to all sources of photons (from radio waves all the way up to X-rays, coherent or incoherent). Lasers included. The inverse-square relationship is only measurable, of course, for measurement windows that lie completely inside the field of radiation. In other words, to measure the
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The inverse square law is useful to tell you how bright the image will be if you move the screen away from X and depart from the quoted 50" spec. Even then it only
MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:2)
You guys are supposed to be geeks! Surely you know that lasers aren't really completely parallel, right? Diffraction limits and all that? It's impossible to have a completely parallel light source, and thus all light sources follow the inverse square law -- lasers included.
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When you say "light output divided by the square inches of the screen" - that's what we call an inverse square law. On account, you see, of the light output being divided by the square - oh, never mind.
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Except not. Inverse square has to do with the distance from the source, not the square area of the reflected surface. (An argument can be made that the area of the reflected surface has a relationship to the distance from the source, but it's not the same thing at all.)
Check this website for a more comple
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Except yes, because the relationship between distance and cross-section that you consider to be not-the-same-thing is a characteristic property of (flat) three-dimensional space. It's why we get inverse square laws as a default physical be
Don't overlook incremental improvements (Score:2)
Yes, it's pretty weak at this point.
(What is it about
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Oh yeah, a really hot fad it most certainly will be ;).
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I'm sure by "perfect lighting conditions" they mean the room is pitch black, the viewers are 15" from the image, and all of them have spent the last 10 minutes acclimating to total darkness.
oh joy (Score:4, Funny)
Seriously though, it is pretty cool.
That being said, I bought a cigarette lighter this week, and when I got home I discovered it had a laser pointer built into it, all for two bucks.
Soon my microwave will be able to use it's laser pointer to point at the projection it puts on my wall that my popcorn is done, as opposed to beeping, which would be oh so gauche.
I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:I can see it now... (Score:5, Funny)
Absurdly large? (Score:2)
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I can see it now...Panorama. (Score:1, Funny)
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YOU FAIL!
Re:I can see it now... (Score:4, Funny)
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thank you !
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I thought it was a dupe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Faked Videos of PicoP? (Score:2)
Were getting close (Score:1)
One hand keeping the cellphone steady and the other hand fap, fap, fapping away.
Of course we are going to need a hell of lot more then 8-10 lumens.
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phones? bah! (Score:4, Interesting)
I am waiting for my mini laser powered home cinema projector that I can get for £100 (or $200 if you like), never have to change a £300 bulb on a £300 projector, never have a loud whirry fan and huge amounts of excess heat, generates a good HD image with a respectable amount of lumens and can be tastefully hidden in a wall of books with a drop down projector screen on the over side of the room. Now *thats* a product I would get excited by.
Rubbish 10 lumen images projected from a bloody mobile phones of all gizmo's are nothing to me except an obvious tactic to attempt to sell phones. Of course the projector market might suppress this because of bulb sales, but who knows?
The alternative use for this technology is mini computers with projected screens and laser/IR keyboards that can fit in a pocket and allow office work against a hotel wall with full wifi, SSD and decent battery life. Now thats another use I would get exited by. I want my Zardoz projector/interface ring.
Re:phones? bah! (Score:4, Informative)
This [pcmag.com] might interest you, then.
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I am waiting for my mini laser powered home cinema projector that I can get for £100 (or $200 if you like), never have to change a £300 bulb on a £300 projector, never have a loud whirry fan and huge amounts of excess heat, generates a good HD image with a respectable amount of lumens and can be tastefully hidden in a wall of books with a drop down projector screen on the over side of the room.
This [pcmag.com] might interest you, then.
Good HD image? Where? That product promises a loysy resolution with no mention on lumens. They even talk about "business and personal" projector, not movies. That one is only good for youtube. Grandparent is right - heat, unreliable lamps (some manufacturers don't even tell you an estimate on lamp life anymore because your lamp can last anywhere between 500 and 8000 hours depending on make, model, environment, luck, phase of the moon etc.) and fans are a plague on current projectors. And yes, I now that so
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Missed the point - they need to start small. (Score:2)
Why do you think electric bicycles are more common than electric cars even though electric bicycles are less useful? Because it's easy to build an electric bike, hard to build an electric car, but the commercialisation drives public acceptance at affordable prices. Why are e-readers crap? Bec
Re:phones? bah! (Score:4, Funny)
Your language usage is weird. The word you are looking for is "bright", not "a respectable amount of lumens". Similarly, it's "hot", not "a respectable amount of celcius". And Sahara is "big", not "a respectable amount of square kilometers". Finally, Bush is "dumb", not "having an embarassing amount of IQs".
take it easy on the grammar (Score:2)
You can refer to http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=amount [reference.com] for the definition of amount. Just think: one potato is a small amount (or number, see discussion at dictionary.com) of potatoes. The amount is one, the unit is potatoes. A farm can have a respectable amount of acres
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I take it that not much excites you, as in you're impossible to please. It looks like you want to have it both ways, as if you'd want a unicorn but are not willing to actually pay for it.
There are LED projectors available and coming out, but it hasn't really come of age yet, they aren't that bright yet.
I think there are several great projectors available. I wouldn't be too turned off by bulb life, my first projector lasted about five years on a 2000 hour bulb.
Malarkey (Score:1, Offtopic)
For your cellphone? what use is that? (Score:2, Interesting)
Why a cellphone? so that everyone can see who's calling me? I see a lot of other cool possibilities, perhaps a new market for personal portable media.
What about adding this projector to portable videoplayers/camera's or a (video) iPod (iPhone as well) :)
Or build it into a car / (portable) gps navigation system so you can use your cars windscreen as a transparent heads up display!
Another cool application could be a replacement of the virtual laser keyboard [thinkgeek.com] creating a virtual optimus [artlebedev.com] with dynamic keys
C
Re:For your cellphone? what use is that? (Score:5, Funny)
Why a cellphone? so that everyone can see who's calling me?
Wait, you mean, you mainly use your cellphone to give/receive phone calls? lol! 1998 just called, they want you back.
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Didn't you watch Star Wars? (Score:2)
Hell, done right we will eventually be able to do presentations for people who can't come into the office. Real time video and projection combined to make a cool tool. I figure it is just like cell based cameras, first two generations suck before something truly useful comes along
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Duh. Because those others have already (or will very soon) moved into your cellphone too.
Battery life ... (Score:1)
... is expected to be over 45 minutes.
Seriously, could the manufacturers try to produce a phone that goes, like, a whole week on a single charge?Re: (Score:1)
... is expected to be over 45 minutes. Seriously, could the manufacturers try to produce a phone that goes, like, a whole week on a single charge?
Sure, they could - if they find cheap new compounds that can safely store massive quantities of energy, or if they design a super energy efficient phone (and yes, that usually means not so many cool features/abilities).
...unless you're all for carrying what amounts to mini-bombs in your pocket?
;)
PS: I get about 5~6 days on one full charge. Use an extended battery, turn off the backlight option, and don't make calls often
Re:Battery life ... (Score:4, Informative)
I guess when all that space is used for making a plain phone instead of the swiss army phone, the designers can concentrate on doing one thing well. In this case that one thing is making calls.
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Like the sibbling poster, I also have a Samsung that'll go a whole week on a single charge. Two weeks if I turn it off when I sleep. I'll admit I don't use it much.
It also has an MP3 player, 1gb storage, radio, camera, internet, quad-band, TV playback, kitchen sink. All of which are accessed from a menu that I use rarely. They are nice to use when I want them though.
In the UK, mobile phones with no kitchen sink are now given away with £20.00 of credit. All these phone batteries will last over a we
Phones? (Score:1)
I don't know if one already exists, but what'd be more useful in a small form factor projector would be a USB powered laptop projector, with VGA input.
Sigh (Score:2)
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The blatant obnoxiousness of most (yes, MOST) people today means that we'll have to watch their mindless crap as well as listen to it.
If we don't like it we'll be labeled 'old farts'. Welcome to the brave new world!
This and the multitouch-hack (Score:1)
but when ... ? (Score:1)
darkness calls... (Score:2)
Look at some comparisons [wikipedia.org]. Note that normal projectors like you use for home cinema, have 200 Lumens and up.
Another feature to be crippled by Verizon (Score:2)
Killer app (Score:2, Funny)
"General Kenobi, years ago you served my father in the Clone Wars. Now he begs you to help him in his struggle against the Empire. I regret that I am unable to present my father's request to you in person..." etc.
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http://www.cnet.com/8301-13544_1-9843713-35.html [cnet.com]
2500 bucks and its yours!
Disruptive technology (Score:5, Insightful)
Now imagine in a few years where your display surface might just be a cheap light screen with a simple support to hold it at different angles. The computer can be almost any shape that suits, perhaps with a fold out keyboard. You can have a big screen on your desk, a small clip on screen that you use on the train. Perhaps the computer has a wireless dongle that includes the display driver, perhaps it's built in, perhaps both.
Using a curved screen might involve no more than an adjustable object in the optical path to deal with the pincushion distortion - use of lasers means focus at virtually any distance.
Microsoft has built up a huge business based solely on the mouse, monitor,keyboard model. Apple has started to move away from it. This is a little gadget which could reshape the desktop computer industry. It shouldn't be underestimated.
Oh great! (Score:3, Funny)
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"Now people will be watching movies with their cell phones while driving."
Yeah, projected on the back of the tractor trailer rig in front of you.
That's more like 5 inches (Score:4, Informative)
Obviously this depends on ambient light, since the darkest part of the screen (i.e. the "black spot") is illuminated only by ambient light (assuming that 'black' in the projector means 'no light passes').
Illuminance is measured in Lux (lx). Lux is defined as follows.
Lux = Lumen / m^2.
Now, a "good" contrast is 10-15, i.e. a white spot will be illuminated with 10-15 times the lx a black spot is.
Normal ambient light is highly variable; a typical table in a lecture room should be illuminated with about 500-1000 lx; the ambient light on your typical screen in an illuminated room (i.e. not a theatre) will be illuminated with maybe 100-500 lx.
So in order to obtain a proper picture a projector should be able to do at least 1000 lx. Comparison: a typical home cinema beamer has about 2000 lumen and projects an area of about 2x1.12m; this means 2000 lumen / 2.24 m^2 = ~900 lx. And guess what, the picture is just fine when the room is "quite dark" and pretty washed out when it is illuminated.
With the claimed 8-10 lumen - let's assume 10 - you can thus illuminate
10 lumen / 1000 lx = 0.01 m^2
Assuming a picture format of 16:9, that's a picture size of
sqrt(0.01 m^2 / (16 * 9)) * 16 = 0.13 m width
sqrt(0.01 m^2 / (16 * 9)) * 9 = 0.075 m height
An incredible 13 cm x 7.5 cm! (5" x 3" for Americans).
That's a diagonal of 5.8". Makes sense since a 2000 lumen projector is 200 times more powerful and accordingly projects an image with sqrt(200) = ~14 times the diagonal.
Except in the darkest of situations, you will *never* have an usable 50 inch image with a lousy 10 lumen.
How can I fail to notice... (Score:2)
How about emitting other portions of the spectrum? (Score:2)
For those of us that want to reheat the morning coffee on the way to work.
Thought Pollution (Score:2)
I think we should stop technology now. I've had enough.
Resolution ? (Score:2)
Opposites (Score:2)
Cool Video Hands-on of iPod-Size Projector @ CES (Score:2)
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