Date:01/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/01/stories/2008060156301600.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
National Soon, a projector in your palm Anand Parthasarathy First prototypes of pico projectors based on DLP technology unveiled - Photo: Anand Parthasarathy Projector from Lilliput: A Texas Instruments engineer in Bangalore holds a manufacturer's prototype of the Pico projector which could be integrated with a mobile phone (inset). Bangalore: Just over a year ago, U.S.-based Texas Instruments announced breakthroughs which would lead to the development of the world's tiniest movie projector, small enough to fit between your fingertips. Last week, an advanced prototype from Taiwanese optical systems-maker Caretronic, who has licensed the 'Pico projector' technology, reached TI's Bangaore-based development centre. Indian engineers based here had contributed some key video processing software which fuels the micro-miniature projector, and the Digital Light Processing (DLP) chip that lies at its heart. The projector is the size of a smart mobile phone; indeed, when commercial models flow from Caretronic and two other early adopters of the design: Taiwan-based Young Optics and the German opto-electronics player Sypro, some of them are likely to come embedded in mobile phones; while others could be dedicated projectors that can be latched on to a cell phone or a portable media player, even an MP4 player, so that film clips, still photos, even powerpoint presentations can be projected on any nearby surface. In the course of a special briefing on Friday for The Hindu by TI's Business Development Manager for DLP Products S. Ganesh, this correspondent was enabled to try out this Lilliputian projector. He could project standard video format clips using the palm-sized projector to the approximate size of a 36-40 inch TV screen - that is about 1 metre by 1.25 metre. The picture is sharp and bright but calls for some darkening of the room. With projectors embedded in devices like hand-held phones, mobile executives will have the ability to make corporate presentations to groups of around 10 people, virtually anywhere. And for you and me, this opens a whole new world of personal entertainment. Why carry a bulky DVD player when travelling? Just take along half a dozen of your favourite movies on a thumb drive and when bored, project them on the wall of the hotel room using a PicoPhone! Don't all rush, though! The first commercial DLP-Pico projector devices are expected in early 2009. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
