Mobile working Toolkit

Mobile-friendly projector debuts at CES

David Meyer ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 07 Jan 2008 12:24 GMT

An imaging company is showing off a PDA-sized laser projector at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), claiming the device could solve the problems presented by tiny mobile screens.

At the event, which is running this week in Las Vegas, Microvision unveiled a prototype of the "pico projector", which is currently code-named "Show". A commercially available version is expected by the end of this year.

In a statement, Microvision claimed that Show is the "first handheld, battery-powered, 'plug-and-play' projector based on the company's single micro-mirror laser-scanning display technology". The device can connect directly to all sorts of portable devices, ranging from laptops and portable media players to mobile phones and digital cameras.

Despite its size, Show can project a "DVD quality" widescreen VGA (WVGA) image — a resolution of 848 x 480 pixels — at any distance between 30cm and 2.5m, while offering a battery life of around 2.5 hours, Microvision claimed.

Microvision has suggested that the PicoP display engine at the core of Show is sufficiently small — at 5cc in volume and 7mm in thickness — to be eventually incorporated directly into mobile devices.

"Consumers want better display solutions that will enrich their experience in watching TV, videos and movies, in playing games, and in browsing the web from their cell phones and other mobile devices," said Microvision's president and chief executive, Alexander Tokman, on Wednesday. "While mobile multimedia subscription services are on the rise, handset manufacturers, content providers and service providers view tiny cell phone displays as a barrier to stronger consumer adoption of their products and services."

Tokman, whose company is making the prototype available in limited quantities to manufacturers and operators for the purposes of feedback and application development, added that Microvision believed the debut of Show was "meaningful not only for our company but for the industry at large".