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Search Results for: microvision

[CES 2009] Microvision Pico Projector Trumps All With Frikkin’ Lasers

By Evan Ackerman on 01/11/09 • 6 Comments

picop1

By Evan Ackerman

At CES last year, we saw a prototype of Microvision’s PicoP miniature laser-based projector. Back then, I was told that the production version would most likely use LEDs, instead. I guess they decided that lasers would just be that much more awesome, because we got a look at the production version of the Microvision PicoP yesterday, and it’s absolutely laserriffic.

picop2

The PicoP uses red, green, and blue lasers to project a WVGA (848 x 480) 16:9 widescreen image with 10 lumens of brightness and a contrast ratio of better than 5,000 to 1. It was adequately bright under ambient show floor lightning, and substantially brighter than any of the other micro projectors we’ve seen this week. In a dark room it projects a tolerable image up to a staggering 100 inches, but the best part is that since it uses lasers, it’s always inherently in focus. This is an important feature, since the whole point of a micro projector is that you can whip it out and use it anywhere.

The PicoP uses an integrated battery that gives is approximately 2 hours per charge. There’s a proprietary input jack that will accept (through included adapters) composite video or VGA inputs. Look for it in Q2 of this year for about $500.

[ Microvision PicoP ]

3M MPro110 Handheld Projector Ships In 2 Weeks

By Evan Ackerman on 09/15/08 • Leave a comment!

By Evan Ackerman

We’ve seen prototypes. We’ve heard announcements. But finally, someone has gotten something out to the consumer, and it’s (again) not Motorola: it’s 3M, with their $359 MPro110 which should be shipping on September 30. The fanless, speakerless, LED lamp palm sized projector weighs only a third of a pound but can display a VGA image (640 x 480) up to 50 inches diagonally at any surface you care to point it at. It’s got VGA and composite video inputs and I assume a battery in there somewhere, although there are no specs on that. You focus it with a thumb wheel. How’s it look? According to Popular Science, who got a peek at a production version:

Images were discernable up to about 11 inches across, even under our bright fluorescent office lights. But they were definitely faded. And some movie scenes were downright indecipherable. The same went for photos. In a dark room, it could project a big enough image to be the ultimate cheap-o home theater.

It doesn’t sound like it’s quite as bright as the prototypes we’ve seen, but so far 3M has been the only company to actually push one of these through to the shelves. I’m really not sure, though, whether this is going to kick off a whole generation of palm-sized projectors, or if the real progress (and money) is in integrated projectors. My money would be on the latter, but it remains to be seen how long it takes to get there.

[ Popular Science ] VIA [

Projector Cell Phone Isn’t An iPhone

By Evan Ackerman on 06/16/08 • Leave a comment!

Cell Phone Projector

By Evan Ackerman

It won’t surprise you to learn that this cell phone that looks like an iPhone but isn’t comes straight from China. It may surprise you that this cell phone has a little projector stuffed into it. This certainly isn’t the first tiny projector we’ve seen, and it’s not even the first portable device to incorporate one, but it does seem to be the first cell phone to use the technology (not Motorola, who my money was on).

Admittedly, the design (by ChinaKing) doesn’t appear to be especially refined. The projector looks to be rather unceremoniously kludged onto the end of the phone, making it perhaps half again as long as a projector-less model might be. The projector itself is LED backlit, and can supposedly project a 30″ 640×480 image for two hours. I don’t think I believe it, and it’s unlikely that we’ll ever see one of these anywhere within reach of Apple’s litigation department in any case.

VIA [ Engadget ]

SunView PMP Has Integrated Projector

By Evan Ackerman on 04/21/08 • Leave a comment!

SunView PMPPBy Evan Ackerman

We’ve written about pico projectors a whole bunch in the past, but the SunView portable media player appears to be one of the first commercially available products to contain one. Demoed at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, the PMPP (that extra “P” stands for “projector,” of course) is a relatively small 133mm x 79mm x 25mm device features at 3.5″ touchscreen, rechargeable battery, speaker, SD slot, and remote control. The highlight is of course the projector, which can illuminate a 53″ screen at 9 lux with a full color gamut VGA (640 x 480) image.

It sounds pretty good, but how well does it work? We’ll have to wait for someone to get their hands on one to find out, although based on our experience with pico projectors at CES, you’ll need a pretty dark place in order to see anything but the most contrasty of images.

Although the SunView PMPP is purportedly available in limited quantities, there’s no word on pricing yet.

VIA [ Display Daily ]

Hikari Pro920 Projector From Okulon Is Tiny, Looks Like Retro Camera

By David Ponce on 11/23/07 • Leave a comment!

okulon hikari

By David Ponce

We’re still waiting for Microvision to get their super-projector properly integrated into our cellphones. But we’re not quite there just yet. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a tiny, boxy projector that will throw a usable image (15 to 20 inches) from just two feet away, then look no further than the Hikari Pro920 (pictured above) or Pro1440 (pictured after the jump) from Taiwanese outfit Okulon. The Pro920 is $300 and projects 15 inches at 25 lumens, while the Pro1440 steps it up a little with 250 lumens, for a 20 inch image. It costs $400.

… Continue Reading

Pico Projector Demoed: Impressive, Most Impressive

By Evan Ackerman on 09/19/07 • Leave a comment!

Pico Projector

By Evan Ackerman

Back in January, the Pico Projector seemed borderline too good to be true. Then, Motorola signed up for the hardware, and finally we get a look at a bright, svelte, preproduction version stuffed into something about the size of a cellphone. According to Sean Captain from Popular Science, “seeing really is believing with this tech. Point the Pico at any even vaguely flat surface–a wall, someone’s back, the palm of your hand–and it’s movie time.” The version in the video below is a prototype that uses red, green, and blue lasers and a digital micromirror array (ultraminiaturized DLP technology, basically) to pump out a bright picture. The production version will probably rely on LEDs which are cheaper, cooler (in the thermal sense), and more efficient, but most likely a bit dimmer.

You should see this in some sort of production cellphone sometime next year, believe it or not. Take that, iPhone.

[ Microvision Pico Projector ] VIA [ PopSci ]

Microvision Signs with Motorola for Pico Projector Phones

By David Ponce on 07/24/07 • 2 Comments

Microvision Signs with Motorola for Pico Projector phone
By Shane McGlaun

Back during CES we talked a bit about the Pico Projector from Microvision and how cool it would be to project your content from your phone onto a wall or other surface for big screen viewing. At the time the Pico Projector wasn’t slated to go into a phone, but today Microvision has announced that they have signed an agreement with Motorola to integrate the Pico Projector into future Motorola products. The PicoP is an ultra-miniature laser based display engine that will enable big screen viewing for mobile devices.

While the details of the agreement weren’t disclosed, the two companies did say that they were working together to integrate the PicoP into a working handset for demo purposes. The prototype phone will use the new WVGA, 854 x 480 pixel wide angle scanner that Microvision introduced at the May 2007 Society of Information Display conference. Looks like we are one step closer to throwing the streaming TV some cellular providers offer onto a screen actually big enough to enjoy.

Via Microvision

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Big Pictures From Tiny Projectors

By Evan Ackerman on 06/14/07 • 1 Comment

By Evan Ackerman

Projectors present so many possibilities beyond big screen movies on the ceiling; possibilities like projected windows or maybe a projected space invaders rug. I’d have gotten myself one by now if it weren’t for the fact that good projectors tend to be giant monstrosities, but unfortunately for my savings account, a few high quality small projectors are set for production.

Action! Projector
The bad boy pictured above is the M25 DLP from Action!. We can forgive Action! for being called Action! since this projector is only about 3″ tall and 10″ square and yet is capable of projecting a full HD picture at 1000 lumens.

Epson Phillips ProjectorIf that’s still too chunky for you, the Epson+Phillips projector shown at the right is only about 1 inch high and 5 inches long. It’s 800×600 resolution isn’t spectacular, for sure, but it’s nothing to sneeze at… It’s actually still the default resolution for about one quarter of web users.

Now, we’ve seen small (and smaller) projectors, but these are apparently commercially available as of now (at undisclosed/OEM prices, anyway).

VIA [ Slashgear ] and [ DigiTimes ]

Microvision Pico Projector

By Andrew Liszewski on 01/04/07 • 5 Comments

Microvision PicoP (Image courtesy Microvision)By Andrew Liszewski

Sure it’s cool to have TV and movies streaming to your phone or PDA but since most of that content starts out as an HD-size image you’re really missing out on a lot with that 320×240 pixel screen. Even surfing the web on a mobile device requires a bit of compromise to squeeze everything onto those relatively tiny displays.

While increasing the resolution is an obvious first step you can only take that approach so far before you reach the limits of what the human eye can see. So another clever approach is to increase the size of the screen via a built-in projector. Microvision is apparently developing the PicoP or Pico Projector that is small enough to be embedded into a cellphone or similarly sized device. The PicoP will be able to project a laptop screen-sized full color image onto any surface and will remain in focus at any distance which is important given these are destined for handheld devices.

I have no idea what the resolution, color-depth or contrast level of these embedded projectors will be but at least Microvision has announced they’ll be officially unveiled at CES which hopefully means we’ll see actual working prototypes.

[ Microvision Pico Projector ] VIA [ Uber-Review ]

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