Is a Microprojector in Your Future?

The New York Times, in a story based largely on information from marketing research firm Insight Media, is predicting a coming wave of tiny digital projectors – microprojectors – hitting the shelves by the end of this year. Insight’s own site goes on to say that they expect the market for these devices, and even smaller projectors built into cell phones and similar devices (“picoprojectors”) to hit 30 million units by 2012.

The basic idea is that advances in lasers and LEDs are making it possible to build into a small device – say, the size of a large cell phone – something that can project a picture a couple of feet when there’s light in the room, or on to the wall in a dark room. So, if you’re out to lunch with a prospective investor, you can whip out your iPhone and your microprojector and give your presentation, with slides, right on the tablecloth.

One thing that should temper your enthusiasm for this brave new world, though, is that this isn’t the first time we’ve heard “by the end of this year” predictions. Last year Iljin Display, one of the manufacturers of these devices, was predicting cell phone projectors by the end of 2007.

Still, as web workers, you readers ought to be prime candidates for such devices whenever they ship. Which opens the question: is this something that attracts you? Do you see situations in which you’d carry around a separate unit and mess with cables to be able to blow up the image from the teeny-tiny screen on your phone? Will this be more attractive in a few years when the functionality is built right into your phone? Or is this a product in search of a reason to exist?

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