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)
I thought it was a dupe... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:8- 10 lumins? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:8- 10 lumins? (Score:3, Insightful)
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 like this.
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.
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.
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.
Re:phones? bah! (Score:3, Insightful)
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. If you watch an average of two hours a night, a 5000 hour bulb would last nearly seven years. Projector noise doesn't have to be a problem, there are quite a few quiet projectors.
Re:Missing the point.... (Score:3, Insightful)