Hands-on with Microvision's itty bitty projector

They said it was coming and sho'nuff, we spotted Microvision's tiny projector for mobile devices here on the CES floor. Verdict? There's some potential, future hotness here. Their setup projected a roughly 10-inch image onto the wall just a few feet away. Naturally, we're not talking about a high-res image and color reproduction is definitely lacking, but it's certainly watchable especially if you're only sharing a few minutes of video with friends or colleagues. However, the circuity (at least at this stage) will add some serious bulk to todays ultra-thin handsets. But when you consider the interest expressed in watching digital mobile TV on tiny handsets, well, there's certainly a developing market here ready to be tapped. Especially by 2008, Microvision's target for bringing this technology to market. Hear that venture capitalists, Microvision needs your love.

Hands on with Microsvision's itty bitty projector

[MearWolf @ Jan 8th 2007 12:20PM]

omg wow, what res is it

[MearWolf @ Jan 8th 2007 12:21PM]

they should integrate some sort of colour tagged pointer so you can use it as a touch screen

[Lucas @ Jan 8th 2007 1:14PM]

I would have thought that since this is laser based and doesnt rely on the limits posed by current projection tech's eg LCD ..... it would be resolution independent, or at least as small as the pitch of the laser dot ? (thats not including given the refractive nature of the lens)

[raulr @ Jan 8th 2007 1:30PM]

So how long until you can use your phone again without burning your face, because I know my home projector gets hot as hell after use.

[Ayle @ Jan 8th 2007 1:49PM]

The return of the pda jackets?

[Nando @ Jan 8th 2007 2:28PM]

Okay, this is somewhat teh hotness!

[iWantPicoP @ Jan 8th 2007 2:53PM]

Since it is based on laser diodes they don't nearly heat up like filament bulbs for bigger projectors. A 40inch image is tottaly possible in a darkened room. They really .

they just launched a separate site called getPicoP.com. They aren't real shots but pretty convincing.

[Scirocco Six @ Jan 8th 2007 4:23PM]

Very very cool. I wanna pair this with the mywaves service and have schtuff everywhere.

[SuperChuck @ Jan 8th 2007 4:58PM]

What kind of useful range does is have? Creating a 10" image is pretty useless to me, but if it was 30 or 40 inches, that starts to get interesting.

[lasergeek @ Jan 8th 2007 10:51PM]

you can make your image as BIG or as small as you want. you want 40'' you got it, as it never needs focusing. pretty sweet.

[BOB_E @ Jan 10th 2007 3:01PM]

WOW! Now this is really something. I can't wait till I can buy this technology. If it can be scaled up just a little. Just think what it could do for product advertising. The possibilities are endless.

[annthracks @ Dec 27th 2008 9:41AM]

this is two years old now, how about something more recent (more recent than the 2008 CES stuff floating around) :-)
I want one.

[David Micro Projector Man @ Mar 13th 2009 5:49PM]

Yeah at CES this year there was at least 3 different vendors with micro projectors - including WoWWee, optica and 3m - check it all out @ http://www.microprojector5.co.uk