Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Miniature projectors

We discuss technology progress, which, when significant, can lead to completely new applications.

A year ago, we noted some newly developed technology for miniature projectors. 3M has now announced a projector using that technology. The list price is $359, the display resolution is 640 by 480, and it is reportedly bright enough to project an 11 inch image in a lit room. This projector is a stand-alone device designed to connect to a laptop or PDA.

Other companies are working on similar products. If that leads to continued technology improvement -- lower cost, smaller size, higher resolution and brighter displays -- we may see projectors bundled into phones and PDAs.

What technology barrier may keep that from happening?

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:06 PM

    I guess it would be Circuit Switching technology that would keep this away from happening since it is costly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That would not be a problem for a modern cell phone/Internet access device. I was thinking about the power needed to project a larger or brighter image. That may constrain these projectors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. David Pogue of the New York Times just wrote a review of three of these projectors:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/11/technology/personaltech/11pogue-email.html?8cir&emc=cira1

    ReplyDelete