You might be wondering what a pico projector is, or alternatively you may have a very good idea – however, for those of you that are not au fait, these little (being the operative word) bad boys are a miniaturised version of the old desk projectors we used to know and love at school. However, these things don’t show transparencies, nor do they connect to PCs (typically) – no, no – instead the pico modules fit inside of small housings akin to that which you’d find in a mobile device!
Now, to-date, things have only just started to evolve, but 3M reducing their prices of their dedicated modules is a good example of where things are going. Personally, I wouldn’t want a projector in my device, but I can think of lots of useful applications for such a technology.
3M are currently offering two projectors, and they have lowered the price of both:
- The new MPro-120 now costs 309$ (down from 327$). It’s a 640×480, 12 lumens LCoS based projector with a 4-hour battery life (at low brightness).
- The MPro-110 now costs 171$ (down from 230$). It offers the same resolution and brightness as the MPro-120, but has a lower battery life (the older engine is less efficient, and the battery is smaller).
This one is a trend to watch – expect to see more devices coming online with hi-res pico projectors built in, especially as we get towards HD 720p territory – suddenly your own home cinema is becoming rapidly viable!
(Note: any pico projector manufacturers that want to send me a sample to use, please feel free – I’d be very interested, and I’m sure the readers would too, to see how these things perform!)
[Via: picoprojector-info.com]