Samsung i7410 | Camera Phone with pico projector
At Camera phone review we first reported the possibility of pico projectors, small enough to fit inside your mobile phone back in July 2007.
Now it looks like they are becoming a reality with specialist electronics companies such as Texas Instruments now producing the technology on a commercial basis and with consumer products now available from Samsung and Nikon. Nikon have incorporated the device into a digital camera, the Coolpix S1000pj and Samsung included a projector in the W7900 smart phone launched for the South Korean market (expected to be badged as the Samsung i7410 in Europe).
Part of the problem to date has been managing the power requirements of the projector, to maintain overall battery life on the mobile phone, but with consumers unwilling to carry an additional piece of hardware around with them this is a hurdle that needs to be overcome if the technology is to go mass market. If projectors in camera phones was to expand as cameras in mobiles have done, the potential market is quoted as growing to 1 billion pico projectors a year by 2015.
Texas Instruments, whose DLP or Digital Light Processing technology is within the Samsung i7410 are optimistic about the prospects but they are not the only company in the marketplace. One thing is sure, that if this takes off, those people who love to have loud annoying conversations on their mobiles in public places (think train carriage) will now be able to inflict their choice of movie on to their unfortunate passengers as well
Camera Phone Review Tweets
Leave a Reply