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The Pocket-Sized Projector Has Arrived
Posted by
timothy
on Thu Nov 06, 2008 01:48 PM
from the wistful-longing-fills-my-chest-cavity dept.
from the wistful-longing-fills-my-chest-cavity dept.
mallumax writes "David Pogue of New York Times has reviewed the Pico, which is a pocket projector from Optoma. The review is quite entertaining (Pogue projects the images on to a plane's ceiling, leaving passengers baffled) and detailed. The highlights are: It is a pocket-sized projector which runs on batteries and can project images and videos from a variety of sources like iPhone, iPod and DVD players with a 480x320px resolution, with a maximum screen size of 65 inches at 8.5 feet. It uses a non-replaceable 10,000 hour LED lamp and a DLP chip from Texas Instruments. The battery lasts for 90 minutes and can be recharged through USB or with its own power cord. The device weighs 115g and comes with an inbuilt speaker which is practically useless. If you want one, it will set you back by $430."
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AC/DC (Score:5, Funny)
Huh... Didn't the thing use lasers... (Score:2)
The Pico I remember used laser diodes, not just a LED light.
The lasers allow much greater efficiency - traditional projectors, like LCD Monitors, actually use more energy to display black, because it has to activate the cells to block light.
In this case, the lasers just shut off, reducing power usage to what's actually needed to make the image, not to make a full while screen all the time.
Re:Huh... Didn't the thing use lasers... (Score:5, Informative)
That may be true in LCD shutter technologies, such as an LCD monitor. This baby uses DLP technology, which is essentially a chip covered in tiny steerable mirrors. To produce black, they simply aim the mirror off-screen. It costs essentially no more energy to produce black vs any other color.
Parent
Temporal dithering with millions of mirrors (Score:3, Informative)
This baby uses DLP technology, which is essentially a chip covered in tiny steerable mirrors. To produce black, they simply aim the mirror off-screen. It costs essentially no more energy to produce black vs any other color.
Then gray must be even harder because it has to aim the mirrors back and forth rapidly.
'nuf said (Score:5, Insightful)
Fun and Games (Score:5, Funny)
Then he spent some quality time with the Air Marshall and DHS ...
Re:Fun and Games (Score:5, Informative)
Then he spent some quality time with the Air Marshall and DHS ...
The American War on the Unexpected [schneier.com] at your service.
Parent
Nice (Score:3, Insightful)
Its early for the technology (Score:5, Insightful)
for those around here that remember 1998, the Rio PMP300 was the 2nd but the most important MP3 player that came on the market. Not exactly ripping it up at 32 MB of RAM but an important introduction nonetheless and ultimately led to Creative and then Apple following with their MP3 players. Given that, in 10 years we may all have them on our key chains next to the USB terabyte drives.
Baffled (Score:5, Funny)
"The people on the plane were baffled when they saw *porn* on the ceiling . ." and you thought cell phones were annoying when they came out . .
Even better... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:Baffled (Score:5, Insightful)
They still are.
Parent
Re:Baffled (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
3M did it first. (Score:5, Informative)
3M makes and sells a very pocketable battery powered projector already. It has been for sale for a couple of months. Has better specs too, and it's cheaper. I'm not sure why we have articles that ignore stuff like this. I know we can't be experts on everything, but man, the author couldn't do a quick google search for pico projectors?
-Taylor
Re:3M did it first. (Score:4, Informative)
Link is here:
http://www.3mmpro.com/
Parent
Re:3M did it first. (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, and I should also point out it's cheaper as well.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to mention it's cheaper too.
I thought he did...
Talk about your feature creep (Score:5, Funny)
It's been done. (Score:5, Funny)
No HD, no wireless, no shaver. Lame.
This is where's it's at. [pomegranatephone.com]
New Uses (Score:5, Interesting)
This opens up entirely new uses for a projector for the nerdy crowd:
Some examples/ideas:
* Projector tiling [64.233.169.104]
* Cheap, portable 3D Scanning [ercim.org]
* Real-time photo sharing (obvious)
* Portable video-conferencing, telepresence (think projector-screen-like avatars around the screen with a tiny projector attached to each of them)
* Pseudo-Invisibility!! (Think helmet-mounted camera, white t-shirt, dorky looking wearable projector mount)
* Head-Mounted Projector applications (other types of invisibility, "Virtual Cockpit", freaking people out at night clubs, etc.)
A power chord... (Score:3, Informative)
9 lumens. 9. (Score:4, Insightful)
When it goes on sale in two weeks, it will give parents a completely portable backseat-of-the-minivan movie theater for the kids.
Sure, provided you're driving at night, or with all the windows painted over.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Now you'll be able to tell the geeks, because they will be the ones with the pocket-projectors.
Small data error (Score:3, Informative)
Just FYI.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's a laser, so it should last like, 40 million hours or something. A tad longer than your average incandescent bulb.
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Informative)
It's a laser, so it should last like, 40 million hours or something. A tad longer than your average incandescent bulb.
I'm not sure if we're talking about the same product, but the one in TFA uses a non-replaceable 9 Lumen LED rated for 20,000 hours (/.'s summary says 10,000)
Parent
Lifespan? (Score:3, Funny)
What's the average lifespan of a shark, cause I'd hate to need to replace a burnt out laser on one of those frickin' things.
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Funny)
It's an LED with an anticipated life of 20,000 hours. That's, like, a war-crime's amount of PowerPoint.
Can 'War Crime' be a unit of measurement for terribleness and quantity?
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Posting AC doesn't undo moderation.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
A little known fact about /. : Anonymous Coward actually has infinite mod points, but since he can't help but post to every discussion, he reverts all his modding.
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Insightful)
It sure is replaceable! Only $430!
The $430 price is only for new adopters. It'll be $19.95 by the time you have to replace it.
Parent
Parent is funny. (Score:3, Funny)
"Pocket projector."
I can't believe no one made this pun before now.
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Informative)
A non-replaceable lamp on an LCD projector? No thanks.
Given that its a "10,000 hour LED" it should last over a year of continuous use. At 8 hours a day every day it will last 3 years.
At more realistic (but still high) levels of usage... say, 4 hours 4 times per week, we're looking at 12 years.
In other words, you'll probably have upgraded multiple times before the bulb burns out.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
They should make the battery replaceable. I think the battery will die long before the LED dies off.
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Funny)
Mod parent idiot. First, it's a DLP projector, not an LCD projector. Secondly, it has a rated lifespan of 10,000 hours. That's more than a complete year of life, or 13 years at 2 hours a day. Probably more than you'll actually want to use this projector.
Also, while I'm boarding on flamebait, I'd like to point and laugh at the person who replied to me a couple of days ago when I posted about this claiming this device didn't exist.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
The XBOX version or the PC version?
Re: (Score:2)
A non-replaceable lamp on an LCD projector? No thanks.
That's 4 cents an hour to use it, if you factor the cost over 10,000 hours. That's 32 cents per 8 hour day. If you use a projector in a business setting for 8 hours and you can't afford 32 cents per day, you, sir, have bigger things to worry about.
-Taylor
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:4, Funny)
What is a pocket protector doing with a lamp anyway? I've been ridiculed enough for using one without a lamp, why would I want to light it up and draw even more attention to it?
Is this some new kind of nerd bling?
Parent
Re:The lamp is non-replaceable? (Score:5, Informative)
It's 20,000 hours. Short, but that's 250 8-hour days of continuous use.
Your math is off. 20,000 / 8 is 2500 8-hour days of continuous use, nearly 7 years.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Eh? I divided 20,000 by 24 and got 833 days of 24 hour continuous use. Which is really closer to six-plus years of life, even if you assume 8-hour days, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Re: (Score:2)
2500, I think you mean. If it died in less than a year, I'd be upset. 10 years is a lot better.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Our New Leader Has Arrived (Score:4, Funny)
Thank you and god bless.
You had me until that part. Sorry, bro, no brownie points for you.
Parent
Re:Our New Leader Has Arrived (Score:5, Funny)
-1: discredit to the white race.
Parent
Re:does size matter? (Score:5, Insightful)
Being able to carry one in your laptop bag for impromptu meetings is a key use. Having one to project the latest episode of [insert favorite show here] from your cell phone is one of those cool applications you buy it for, even though you'll probably never use it that way.
BTW - not every presentation occurs where there is a mounted projector. In the architecture field, for example, we often give presentations to smaller clients (churches, non-profits, individuals) in class or meeting rooms with nothing but a table, some chairs, and four white walls. These people don't have their "dream buildings" yet...which is why we're working with them.
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I suspect the opposite is true, and it will find acceptance mainly as a display for iPods, netbooks, etc. As a replacement for business or home theater projector, it is mostly just less bright, since the size usually doesn't matter (mos
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, Mr. Gates, three meters is nine feet. Perhaps I'm mistaken in assuming that's nine feet diagonal as monitors are usually measured, but that's twice as big as my TV, which is over twice as big as any screen I've ever owned.
It doesn't say that the room has to be smaller than three meters; that's the maximum size of the projection.