Slashdot Mirror
Mitsubishi LED Projector: Small, Cheap, Durable
mcaycedo writes "This new projector is my top number 1 "must have" gadget. The reasons: price (US$699), size (fit in your hand), convenience (uses AC, batteries, card adaptor) and duration (lamp life:20000 hours). The cons: only SVGA (800x600), lumens (N/A)" There are tons of applications for a LED projector of this size, too: in cars, integrated into portable video players, information displays of all kinds ... and as resolution and brightness improve, even more will emerge.
Mitsubishi Launches Mini DLP PocketProjector
by David Chait [Theater, Mobile] Tuesday, February 08th, 2005
If you've always wanted a front projector that you could take with you anywhere, the upcoming PocketProjector from Mitsubishi might just be what you've dreamed of.
Mitsubishi PocketProjector in hand
Certainly rating as one of the smallest projection units out there, the new Mitsubishi PocketProjector is a tiny 14oz powerhouse of a projector. A unit small enough to fit in your hand, run off batteries or car adapter, yet create a 20 screen with only one foot of throw.
Mitsubishi PocketProjector A/V Jacks
The PocketProjector can drive 800x600 SVGA resolution through its Lumileds tri-LED DLP system, rated at over 20,000 hours of lamp life. And it sports composite, s-video, and VGA connectors, great for visualizing anything from a laptop presentation to a portable DVD player. Heck, with a digital camera that has AV output, you can set up a virtual slide show no matter where you are - well, so long as you have a clean, flat, white surface to project onto. ; )
Mitsubishi PocketProjector Next to Cell Phone
The PocketProjector will be available in July at an SRP of $699 US - not cheap certainly, but a fair price for an SVGA projector with multiple inputs, multiple portable power solutions, and that is pocketable. They'll also be selling battery packs for the unit, plus 'solutions' of cables/etc. for different users/industries. Hopefully as soon as they're ready, we'll get one in for testing. I know a LOT of people who'd jump at a mini projector like this...
Offical Press Release, without pictures
2nd article with 1 picture
_JS
Lumens are a way to measure the light which is isotropically radiated from a given source
...LEDs, as highly directional light sources, are measured in Candles (abbreviated "cd" or millicandles as "mcd") and not measured in Lumens.
Not to nit-pick (that's a pun...get it?) but what you are thinking of is referred to as "mean spherical candela". Lumens are simply the photometric equivilent of Watts (that is to say they are watts normalised to take into account the photopic curve which describes the spectral responsivity of the human eye) and are thus an excellent means of describing the optical output of a source or system.
Again I must disagree. As an illumination engineer I rely heavily on the Lumen ratings for the LEDs with which I design since that value is the integrated amount of light available from the source and is not related to the distribution of the emission. LEDs are indeed more directional than conventional sources but there is a wide range of emission patterns available.
Getting back to the matter at hand, I can't read the article but I agree that this device probably uses Luxeon emitters since they are the most concentrated sources available right now. The technology Lumileds is developing is advancing in leaps and bounds so it is unquestionably the case that these projectors are going to get a lot brighter quite soon. I wouldn't rush out and get this one since you will be able to get one about 50% brighter within a year for no more money (or at least no more cost to the manufacturuer, not always the same thing).
-Pinkoir