Explay Colibri pico projector promises 70-inch images at SVGA resolution

Explay has been one of the early proponents of pico projectors, and it looks like the company is not showing any signs of abandoning the form anytime soon, with it now set to officially introduce its new, even smaller Colibri model at Mobile World Congress next week. This one measures a mere 24 x 28.6 x 7mm, and can apparently pump out a 70-inch image at VGA, WVGA or SVGA resolution, all while drawing just 1.5W of power, which Explay says makes it the smallest, most efficient, and highest resolution pico projector on the market today. Unfortunately, the company doesn't seem have anything to say about the project actually finding its way into a phone or other device, though perhaps it's saving a little something for MWC.

[Samboini @ Feb 9th 2009 3:29PM]

Dazzling! But seriously, 15 years from now max, this technology will be de riguer on all phones.

[Oli D @ Feb 9th 2009 3:37PM]

yeah like cameras are now,

i get sick of having a camera (two actually for some reason), because it apparently invites people you barely know to commandeer it and go through your photos.

[rumblejazz @ Feb 10th 2009 7:35AM]

I hope not.

Even though I consider myself to be reasonably mature, I can guarantee you, as soon as this is standard in phones, I WILL be projecting porn on everything I see.

[KarlW @ Feb 9th 2009 4:05PM]

Phones? Pssht. I want one of those in my eye. Or at least in a pair of sunglasses.

[Shinigami @ Feb 9th 2009 4:53PM]

I wonder how long will it take to put Full-HD projector in a phone that is 12mm thick...

[ilh @ Feb 9th 2009 6:39PM]

Ugh, hopefully not. It's bad enough all the chavs playing their crappy music through their crappy phone speakers, I don't want to have to also watch their recordings of them pointlessly happy slapping people thinking they're big and hard.

[fieldcar @ Feb 9th 2009 3:29PM]

I want my big laser projector, not portable... arg...

[Jomolungma @ Feb 9th 2009 3:32PM]

I'm not an engineer, so I really have no clue about these things, but the specs on this doodad seem impossible. I mean, seriously, HTF?

Does anyone know how far the image can be projected and still maintain clarity? I'm assuming to get out to 70 inches you must be at least a few feet away from your target.

Seriously, how the hell does this work? Unbelievable.

[fieldcar @ Feb 9th 2009 3:38PM]

Laser projectors don't need to focus, if this is in fact a laser projector.
http://www.lightblueoptics.com/technology.htm

[Mike @ Feb 9th 2009 4:07PM]

Yea its a laser projector.

And these people were some of the earliest working on laser projectors for this purpose.

So expect them to corner the market in them, cause they'll get some amazing tech :)

[brokenkeyboard @ Feb 9th 2009 5:51PM]

wonder what the brightness will be. 70-inch image that is totally un-viewable because its so dim? Seems like you can only generate so many photons with 1.5W

[Errorkid @ Feb 9th 2009 6:10PM]

Laser in this kind of production process can generate about 1000 Lumen per Watt - something LED's can only dream off (~100 lumen/W). Since lasers are monochromatic (like LED), there'll be three of them: red/green/blue to match our eye's spectrum at it peaks so that the amount of energy required is minimized. The brightest is a white: all lasers at max output. Since processing the signals consumes energy as well I think it might be safe to subtract a few hundred mW - something in the order of 1000 lumens.

[MadMike @ Feb 9th 2009 3:34PM]

What? No HD?! Pffft - BORING! ;-)

[Mike @ Feb 9th 2009 4:10PM]

800x600 is still pretty damn nice for a classroom in this form factor. You always need people in the back of the class to have the text big, so we always use low resolutions like that.

Although when they get to XVGA (1024x768) then we'll be able to view alot of webpages that would fk up on at SVGA.

[Mike @ Feb 9th 2009 4:11PM]

when they make clip-on projectors for laptops (or hell, have them built in), I'll be pumped.

[MadMike @ Feb 9th 2009 4:38PM]

I was being facetious. It is actually a nice advancement in technology and in a few years we should have 1080p+ picoprojectors.

[Oli D @ Feb 9th 2009 3:36PM]

that looks like a clockwork crumpft to me

[Brett Cherwinski @ Feb 9th 2009 3:48PM]

That's not even a real image. Look at the lighting on the pad of the thumb.

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 9th 2009 3:50PM]

I first noticed it was wrong because the person is holding two different parts of the projector. :p

(thumb on output, finger on back.)

[vaan @ Feb 9th 2009 3:57PM]

clearly photoshopped

[Max @ Feb 9th 2009 3:38PM]

Has anyone invented a purpose for all these tiny projectors?

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 9th 2009 3:48PM]

Laptop projectors for on the road presentations comes to mind.

[404 @ Feb 9th 2009 3:49PM]

Showing presentations on the next generation of projectors.

"The reason why I've only got photos of these new femto-projectors is that Dave in engineering put our only prototype down on the bench for two seconds and now we can't find it anymore..."

[LiqwidZero @ Feb 9th 2009 3:50PM]

I have an idea that pico projectors are just a ploy to get ants to start going to a theatre. They're probably all tired from watching plays all the time. I'm sure they probably would like to see the latest Jason Statham movie like we do. Only smaller.

[chispito @ Feb 9th 2009 3:57PM]

Build it into a laptop lid for presentations. Other than that, I don't see any driving needs.

[Jomolungma @ Feb 9th 2009 4:10PM]

Perhaps using your iPod to watch 70-inch movies wherever you may be. I'm sure Madison Ave. can convince anyone with a spare buck (an increasingly smaller group of people) that they NEED one of these.

[tony murphy @ Feb 9th 2009 4:57PM]

i guess if you want to be boring you could put them in a laptop and project your powerpoints, but i'd rather have my cell phone/netbook project data onto my environment for some sweet augment reality.

[Shinigami @ Feb 9th 2009 4:58PM]

70-inch porn? From a cell phone? You need other reasons?
Ok, other reasons: show off to friends, "presentations" since we do that 24/7, and, most importantly, increasing the screen size of a small device.

[superhobo @ Feb 9th 2009 3:42PM]

Nice.
Keep em coming.

[Chris @ Feb 9th 2009 3:44PM]

If there's anything about this that's unbelievable, it's gotta be the badly photoshopped image.

[Chief @ Feb 9th 2009 3:50PM]

Good point. I would think an outfit that claims to deliver these specs could manage to photograph a hand holding the device without looking like it is gouging a trench into the poor guys thumb. When they do things like this, it raises obvious questions like "Did they scale the hand to match the device, or did they scale the device to match the hand?"

[Oli D @ Feb 9th 2009 3:53PM]

if it was a shop, they would have just scaled down a picture of a regular projector so it was teeeny weeeny

[Eric @ Feb 9th 2009 4:17PM]

My thoughts exactly!

[Eric @ Feb 9th 2009 4:22PM]

The edges of the projector don't match the hand. The projector is has a reflective surface on top but fails to reflect the large finger holding it. The only shadow is of the projector, the hand casts no shadow. Very poor PS job.

[Big Sam @ Feb 9th 2009 3:57PM]

But how bright will it be? 70 inch screen at 10 lumens is pretty worthless.

[Shinigami @ Feb 9th 2009 4:58PM]

In Total Darkness even 10 lumens mean light.

[Tony B. @ Feb 9th 2009 5:03PM]

Does anyone else notice that the pic is photoshopped? I wonder if it's as small as they say it is.

[T_Utech @ Feb 9th 2009 5:04PM]

How soon do you think we'll see these being built-in to laptops? My bet would be pretty soon for the business-focused sector.

[AlanAudio @ Feb 9th 2009 5:17PM]

Viewing a movie as a projected 70 inch image may sound like fun in theory, but you'll be listening to the sound through a tinny three quarter inch speaker. It doesn't seem like a very satisfactory solution to me.

[nakuls @ Feb 9th 2009 5:55PM]

Is it just me or the projector is photoshopped between fingers?

[sr @ Feb 9th 2009 7:30PM]

How does 1.5w project a 70" image? Maybe in a pitch black room where the image is barely discernable.

[Jeff R @ Feb 9th 2009 8:02PM]

photochopped alert!!!

[blanchy @ Feb 10th 2009 1:37PM]

check this website There'is a lot of explications about picoprojectors....

I cannot imagine all the possibilities that these kind of projectors will be allowed...

http://www.picoprojecteurs.com

Mobile Phone Handsets, Personal Media Players , Notebook Computers , Portable Gaming , Digital Camera/Camcorder , Standalone Companion Projector , Custom Product Jackets / Add-ons...


Have fun...