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Pico Projectors
Source: PRO AV Magazine
Publication date: January 1, 2008
By Tim Kridel
IS A PROJECTOR IN HAND WORTH ONE IN ceiling? That's one question facing pico projectors, a new breed of projectors designed for a variety of handheld applications, including cell phones aimed at the enterprise market.
As the name implies, pico projectors are small: tiny enough to be built into a cell phone or plugged into a laptop like a USB dongle, depending on the design a manufacturer believes there's a market for. Backed by major semiconductor vendors such as Texas Instruments (TI), pico projectors bear watching by AV pros because they could affect the market for other types of projectors, including portable units and fixed projectors mounted in places such as conference rooms.
Currently, pico projectors are available only as prototypes, but several companies recently have committed to building them. One is Foxconn, a Taiwan manufacturer that builds cell phones for well-known brands such as Apple, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson.
In October 2007, TI announced that Foxconn would begin manufacturing pico projection products based on TI's Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology. Foxconn didn't respond to interview requests.
TI, for its part, believes that there are plenty of opportunities. “I think it would be positioned at consumers, as well as enterprises,” says Frank Moizio, manager of the emerging markets business for TI's DLP Front Projection business unit.