Samsung Plans to add 3M Mini-Projector to New Handsets

[Rocco Augusto]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.twincities.com/ci_9244731?source=most_viewed' target='_blank'>http://www.twincities.com/ci_924473...rce=most_viewed</a><br /><br /></div><em>&quot;3M has been touting its mini-projectors for some time now (along with many others), but it looks like they're now finally a bit closer to landing in an actual product, with Samsung reportedly set to begin offering them later this year. What's not clear, unfortunately, is whether the projectors will actually be built into the cellphones (and if so, which ones), or simply offered as an attachment of some sort, but either way you can apparently expect to pay between $200 and $400 for the chance to spread a bit of visual pollution.&quot;<br /><br /></em><img border="1" src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1211057026.usr8.jpg" alt="" /><br /><em><font size="1">[Photo courtesy of Engadget]</font></em><br /><br />Once again Samsung has shown us that they are on the top of their game as far as innovation goes. The idea of being able to project my handsets display is actually a neat concept. Something like this would be perfect in a meeting type situation, or even watching a movie on the go. I have to say, hats off to Samsung for once again thinking outside the box!

[Prosper]

Sh*t, that's hot!! :D

[Ripberger]

Microvision is also working on a product like this, called the Pico Projector, or PicoP: microvision.blogspot.com (http://microvision.blogspot.com)

[latinlover]

Excellent news!

[OttO28]

interesting, but is it practical at that price point (200-400)? lol, is it practical at all?

maybe someone could enlighten me as to some practical uses for the projector so i can convince my wife that we need one!

[Rocco Augusto]

interesting, but is it practical at that price point (200-400)? lol, is it practical at all?

maybe someone could enlighten me as to some practical uses for the projector so i can convince my wife that we need one!

This would be practical mostly in a business sense. Imagine your with your boss driving down to a big meeting and you want to prepare notes and go over things. You whip out your Samsung Windows Mobile device with mini-projector, open up a few Word docs or spreadsheets and project that data on to a nice surface.

This scenario works even better if you're trying to share that same information with a group of people instead of just one person that you could always just hand your handset too.

Also, you're on a long trip and the little ones are starting to act up, but you being the super prepared parent that you packed a bunch of your kids favorite cartoons onto your phone so now all you have to do is fire them up and project them onto a wall or the back of a car seat.

I'm just grasping at straws here but those are the same excuses I used to convince the misses that it is imperative that I purchase one of these when they come out. The whole entertaining the kids scenario seems to work every time ;)

(Hopefully she doesn't read this :D)

[shooter111]

This would be practical mostly in a business sense. Imagine your with your boss driving down to a big meeting and you want to prepare notes and go over things. You whip out your Samsung Windows Mobile device with mini-projector, open up a few Word docs or spreadsheets and project that data on to a nice surface.

While the concept sounds good, having bought the 3M projector (for $399 no less) and returned it I can truly say that in reality we are still a few years off from practical business use. The brightness and size of the pico projectors simply do not allow them to be used for business applications. The 3M in particular which was advertised as a "business" projector was basically worthless as the brightness was low, and lacked speaker, storage, video decoding, etc. I ended up purchasing the AAXA P1 projector (which I love) for $239 but it cannot be used for most business applications. Sure if you have a marketing video or gigantic pie charts it might work, but spreadsheets, graphs, docs - no way.

These pico projectors are great for videos, pictures, and as a secondary monitor in a DARK ROOM only. This basically rules out most practical business environments. Here's some pictures to prove this point:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2432/3682665706_2d0d41fe50.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3612/3681852013_14ec5288e9.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2485/3681851483_887b5987d3.jpg

[shooter111]

Here's a youtube video that I think gives a good idea of what a pico can and can't do:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9K3v2TU30U

Now I don't want to sound too negative on picos, especially not the AAXA P1 pico projector - I love it as it has onboard video player capabilities, is reasonbly bright (in darker settings) takes my SD card, and best of all it was only $200 and chance. Picos are very cool given the right environments - I recommend one for any gadget geek!