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Considering Cheaper Pico-Projectors As Standard Equipment On Cell Phones
An anonymous reader writes "Will pico-projectors become standard equipment on mobile phones, the same way that digital cameras have become? The jury is still out on user acceptance — after all, only four mobile phones use pico-projectors today — but if they get small and cheap enough, mobile phone makers are going to install them. There are four vendors today — Microvision, National Semiconductor, 3M and Texas Instruments — but only TI has design wins in cell phones already on the market. And at the recent Mobile World Congress, TI showed a smaller digital light processor (DLP) chip that fits inside even the slimmest mobile phones, and which it claims is cheap enough to become standard equipment. A lot of us never use the camera in our phones now — would you use a pico-projector if it was built into your phone?"
Somehow I don't think that a "pico-projector" is one trillionth the size of a regular projector. Asshole marketers.
How about a wireless projecter, the size of a deck of cards, with built-in wireless USB and/or bluetooth? Then you can use it with nearly anything, the way wi-fi projectors work now.
Besides, if you're playing a video with your phone, what if you want to then take a phone call?
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
No, I wouldn't use one in my phone - but I would ABSOLUTELY use one in my laptop.
It'd be great to be able to project onto a wall for a spur-of-the-moment code discussion, etc. It seems like every time I'm in a meeting & want to share an idea or code snippet, etc. with the group, it happens to be in an area without a projector. If we could have a picoprojector on the backside of my laptop's LCD, you could project from there whenever you need...
I don't really care what device I use as a projector. What matters to me is whether the projection is bright enough for my audience to see the projected images clearly. If I can do that from my phone, great (one less piece of equipment to lug around).
The other question I would ask is whether using my phone as a projector would drain the battery, precluding me using the phone as a phone. A phone with a flat battery is not much use.
linquendum tondere
a product of intelligent design?
sort of like putting a recreation and reproduction facility right next to a waste water treatment facility?
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
I would absolutely use a small projector on my phone. It would be great for sharing info, and would help with augmented reality apps. It also allows you to get outside of the limitations of a tiny screen. You could even use it as a replacement for a screen, and make the phone the shape of a pen that folds out with a screen that the interface gets projected onto. This is the next step, I think.
One never knows when one might need a rotten tomato... - King's Quest IV: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow
It needs to be a holographic projector, or don't bother.
I have one of those, but it's locked to Vaderfone
They are two completely different technologies with completely different purposes filling completely different needs.
You mean sort of like telephones and cameras?
Actually, I think the logic for a projector in your cellphone is what another poster mentioned earlier, an easy way to display the photos you have taken on your phone to people.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
No. Next question please...
More seriously though, I'm sure that this would be very useful for a handful of people. It might even be good for the phone makers as a short-term marketing gimmick. I bet a lot of people might initally buy such a phone for the "wow" factor before realizing the limitations.
The problem is this: Where/when could you use such a device in an effective way? You'd need a screen and/or a blank wall, as well as something close enough to that wall to set your phone on, unless you and your comrades enjoy watching a very wobbly video.
On the other hand, combined with an accelerometer, a compass, and/or a camera, someone might be able to make a fairly novel application. For example, a game where moving the phone would scroll the projected image, like moving the sights of a gun. (Clearly the game would have to be a little more creative than that, but you get the general idea.)
It'd be great to be able to project onto a wall for a spur-of-the-moment code discussion, etc. It seems like every time I'm in a meeting & want to share an idea or code snippet, etc. with the group, it happens to be in an area without a projector. If we could have a picoprojector on the backside of my laptop's LCD, you could project from there whenever you need...
Before long, you'd be invited to damn few meetings. You might be on to something there...
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
Wait, enjoyable with ice cubes and syrup? I'm confused.
It's kind of difficult to pretend to be working during meetings while actually watching internet porn on my phone if I'm watching it by projecting it life-size on a wall.
And people thought sexting was bad with just those cell phone LCDs.
I use irony whenever I can, but my shirts are still wrinkled...
It IS a videophone, is a word processor, is a spreadsheet, is also a map and a satnav, and is a super small computing device designed for visual display of information.
Fuck, I can even run multi user ssh sessions, DB servers and web sites on it. Y'know I reckon I could run mult user X desktops on the thing as well.
http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/
Where have you been for the last 5 years?
Projector too? Hell yeah!
Deleted
No, I wouldn't use one in my phone - but I would ABSOLUTELY use one in my PDA.
1.) I'm going to the lab and a co-worker stops me to ask about a hardware issue. There is no Way I can read a schematic on a PDA. But, if I could project it onto a surface, I wouldn't have to go upstairs to my main PC to open the schematic
2.) I'm sitting on an airplane wanting to watch a movie. Pulling out a laptop is pretty freaking annoying, but this could project it onto the seat in front of me.
3.) Games. Finally I can play a video game on my phone.
4.) You have a plumbing issue. You take a picture of the part, take it to the store, project it so the person behind the counter can see it, and they give you the right item.
5.) You are meeting some new friends. "Oh! I have a dog! Here is their picture"... and you look at it on a tiny screen and go "What kind of dog Is that?" Or, take out a projector and actually show a decent picture of your dog/family/car/house/injury/vacation/logo/design
There are MANY reasons that I would want this on my PDA. Oh, and it would be great if my PDA acted like a cell phone.
Perhaps because relative size comparisons, while less precise, are faster to recognize than decoding a set of dimensions.
I know Star Trek has fallen from popular attention, but these cell phone things are becoming more and more like the kind of gear we collectively envision "Future People" walking around with.
It's interesting, though, that our imaginary selves are interested in exploration, and their portable technology was tuned to that, (probing and measuring the environment), whereas our devices seem to be more about insulating people from reality. (Headphones and music and videos and games, etc.)
In Star Trek they were too busy having adventures to spend much time in Fantasy Lad.
The question of one's state of bondage can be determined by a quick assessment of one's collection of iPhone apps.
-FL
So, if we were to translate what you're saying out of the 90's, you want a pico projector in your iPhone/Droid/Nexus One/Palm Pre?
I sometimes ask revealing, often ignorant-seeming questions. Maybe they're harder to answer than you think.
My phone is only a phone and I like it that way. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:ATTtelephone-large.jpg
"Liechtenstein is the world's largest producer of sausage casings, potassium storage units, and false teeth."
Why can't people use standard units of measurements like millimeters, or even inches?
Perhaps because regardless of minor variations- which I haven't really noticed- the vast majority of playing cards are close enough to the same size and any normal person would understand the approximate scale that the authors meant.
I mean, seriously, most people would know they didn't mean cards this size or require precise measurements unless they were some way along the autistic spectrum of literalness.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
At lunch maybe you think of something relevant online to the conversation to show people. Maybe it is a [citation needed] situation, maybe some pianist on youtube that you think is awesome. Whipping out a laptop is rarely ok, but a cellphone could work. The cellphone needs to be able to balance standing easily and aim the projector downwards (with some correction to fix the skewing) to allow to you show things on the table. Or to be able to point it at a wall if you want to do so. This would be a powerful use.
The other option is cellphones turning into netbooks. A projector combined with a camera or ladar type system gives you a screen and a full size keyboard on your desk, in something that fits in a pocket! That is truly powerful. You only need a 12x10cm 'screen' not poster sized for that to have vast uses. I'm sure given time I could think of more uses for a phone projector but I imagine time will tell better than I ever could.