The age of pico projectors has officially arrived with their huge presence at CES, and the first projector phone, the LG Expo, going on sale in the US. There was even a pico projector film festival in January, where movies were screened on ice sculptures and bare backs. Pico projectors are either hand-held projectors, or projectors embedded in small electronic devices such as cell phones. They attempt to address one of the biggest problems in electronics, which is that smaller is better…except for screens. The tension between what our handheld devices are capable of doing versus what they are capable of showing through their interfaces grows stronger every year. Whether pico projectors are the answer to that problem remains to be seen.

LG is first out of the gate with a pico projector that attaches to their new LG Expo. The attachment retails for $179 and projects a 480 x 320 image up to 9 feet away. Reviews so far say that the picture, which maxes out at 66 inches, looks good. This is only the beginning of course. While the LG projector is a clip-on accessory, future versions will fit into the phone’s form factor.

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