Pico projectors caught in the wild, one on a camcorder, one in Samsung's W9600 cellphone (video)

Yeah, we know: you haven't bought a pico projector and you really have no plan to do so. Still, it's kind of fun to see them doing their thing, beaming little, dim images onto walls from improbably small boxes. The folks at PicoProjector-info are happy to oblige, posting two videos of DLP picos in action at CES. The first is a Texas Instruments model that's been stuck atop a camcorder (presumably with bubblegum), pointing backward to splay the image of whatever it's filming into the wall -- and to temporarily blind whoever dares pick up said camcorder. Next up is a demonstration of the Samsung W9600, which we spent a bit of time with ourselves at CES. Now you can see how it looks in motion, as both videos are embedded after the break.

[CRA1G Posted Jan 15th 2010 8:12AM]

Hey, I plan on buying a picoprojector! You know, as soon as they're good...and cheap...and I have a use for one.

[Craneguy Posted Jan 15th 2010 8:52AM]

Pico projector in a cell phone...that could be useful.

[aliciacolbie Posted Jan 15th 2010 9:54PM]

@Craneguy Yes it will although the one uveiled by LG; The LG expo didn't have that much elegant welcome. But for me? The specs are a geeks dream. And $199 for a high end phone with a Snapdragon? Not bad at all! Question is, will the pico projectors be the new trend for camcorders/cellphone? http://bit.ly/lg-expo-detailed-overview

[Average White Boy Posted Jan 15th 2010 9:08AM]

Totally awesome. Does the projector mode eat up the battery in about an hour or so?

[F C Posted Jan 15th 2010 9:47AM]

But... but how do I operate the camcorder as I stare at the projection on the wall?

[GregDele Posted Jan 15th 2010 10:04AM]

HEY!

I have bought a Pico projector! Got the AAXA P1.

My wife and I live aboard a sail boat and it gives us a great source for (to us) big screen TV!!! We LOVE it.

Greg

[n1hmrd Posted Jan 15th 2010 10:09AM]

ok so lets get this right soon we will be using projected 1 keyboards 2 projected displays (some type of motion device dependent on the motion controller war that going to star Full this year),and these devices will be mobile,pc,tv,watch,camera,wow looks like we are going to evolve gadget wise very very soon :D!!!

[Conrod Posted Jan 15th 2010 12:43PM]

Pico projectors will never be cool to engadget until Apple releases one on a device...then they will be the best thing ever.

[qwe130 Posted Jan 17th 2010 7:01AM]

@Conrod

Totally agree

[JediFonger Posted Jan 15th 2010 12:49PM]

not 16k, 16-bit color and no 3-D. what is this 2010? that's ridunkuous!

[buskape Posted Jan 16th 2010 4:49PM]

@JediFonger indeed

[Sunil Posted Jan 15th 2010 1:12PM]

Pico projectors are like Nano Technology... They talk Philosophy, but do not deliver the goods (or even bads).

[kyleb2112 Posted Jan 16th 2010 3:51PM]

These should all be mandatory 3D and the glasses should cost $90.

[oliverwebs Posted Jan 18th 2010 6:17AM]

Why bother with integrated pico projectors at all when you can get 4 times the picture quality from a small companion pico projector and connect it to almost anything?

I remember when all the tech press hated digital picture frames and couldnt see the point of them at all. That was 5 years ago and now even your grandma's got one and most of your friends have probably bought at least one and every high street tech store has them in stock. This will happen with pico projectors but probably not with the integrated picos taking off for a long while and for good reason.

The main thing to remember is these integrated pico projectors in phones, camcorders and soon laptops are great as an extra feature but they're not the main reason most people will buy one.

Lets face it the main feature you need when your buying a pico projector is screen quality and brightness. Right now thats not coming from an integrated pico projector, its coming from a stand alone or companion projector which you connect to the phone, cam etc and this trend will continue for many years to come whilst manufcaturers get to grips with the battery power required and the miniturisation.

Thus if you're looking for the best projection you can get from your pocket then look for the brightest smallest projector there is. Right now the best one is the Adapt 305 personal projector - 45 lumens, 4gb on board memory, VGA connectivity, micro SD, mac compatible, accepts most file formats (video, photo, ppt as jpg) without labourious file conversion and connects to most devices you've ever thought about connecting it to.

So unless you really want that phone or camcorder for all its other features just get the best pico projector there is and forget about the mini torches being incorporated into devices which are only 6 - 10 lumens instead of a much richer 45 lumens.