Sep 13 2008
The pico projectors are here! The pico projectors are here! Professional sales presenters dance with glee
While ultra-tiny pico projectors have been released in other parts of the world, like the Aiptek V10 in Australia, we’ve not yet seen any of these super-portable display devices released in the U.S. - until now!
3M’s German division announced that the MPro110 pocket projector will be available worldwide on September 30th. Priced at US$359, the MPro110 features:
- Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS)
technology capable of displaying VGA (640 x 480) resolution - LED lamp requiring no fan for cooling
- Lightweight and compact design: less than a third of a pound (0.14kg) and it fits in the palm of your hand (2.0 x 0.9 x 4.5 inches, or 5.08cm x 2.29cm x 11.43cm)
- Up to 50-inch diagonal display size
- VGA and composite video connections
This is the first ultra-portable pico-projector to be made available in the North American market from a major manufacturer.
Meanwhile, Toshiba has been showing its pocket projector design at industry trade shows. The Toshiba LED Pico Projector weighs less than a half-pound (100 grams), and measures 10 x 4.5 x 1.7 cm in size - a little larger than a typical smartphone. The projector is able to display 10 ANSI lumens and uses an LED lamp (meaning: no fan noise). The Pico projector technology was developed by Texas Instruments, whom also has given this technology to Optoma for their Pico projector. Toshiba expects to release the device worldwide in the first quarter of 2009.
Here is a video showing how the Toshiba LED Pico Projector displays a video image on a 50-inch screen. Although the picture is not too bright, the colors and resolution appear to be acceptable for small group presentations.
