The LG Expo brings projection to mobile phones...but can it project more space into my pocket?

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.

Using your phone to project a movie onto the wall certainly has a “gee whiz” factor to it, like in the new LG commercial where an office worker is seen projecting Avatar on the wall of the break room. But before we all throw away our big screens, pico projectors have some problems to overcome.

One big issue is sound. If one of the benefits of a pico projector is that you can use a small form factor to share video with a large group of people, getting big sound out is no easier. Battery life is another potential issue. LG doesn’t give a rated battery life in the product specifications page, and they seem to have embargoed that information as it doesn’t appear in any of the reviews so far. Bottom line: it’s unclear how far you’d get into a movie (let alone Avatar) before your phone died.

Pico projectors are also in a bit of a foot race as all of our existing screens get tied in to the grid. For instance, if you were at a party and wanted to share a funny video you took with your phone, right now it might be easier to show it with a pico projector. However, with web-enabled televisions and media center PCs, soon (if not already) you will be able to easily send video to any nearby screen.

And the places without personal screens where you might want to watch something, like airplanes and subways, are often not practical places to project images, particularly if you have any qualms about force feeding your media preferences onto others.

Indeed, the very ease with which pico projectors can be used to create social awkwardness could be a significant feature. Alexander Besher, one of the organizers of the pico projector film festival, thinks there could be significant use of pico projectors in political protests. Picture a nighttime war protest where hundreds of people have pico projectors showing graphic images of devastation on every available surface.

However, the most exciting use of pico projectors might not be doing the things, like projecting movies, that we associate with traditional projectors. Instead, pico projectors could be used for augmented reality functions- projecting the digital world onto the physical one.

To see the most amazing potential applications using this technology, MIT’s “SixthSense” project is the place to look. We’ve reported on SixthSense before, but here is a recent video with even more amazing features, including some iPad-like capabilities achieved using only a pico projector and a sheet of paper.

Whatever its killer app ends up being, it’s certain that we’ll be seeing more pico projectors in the future. Market research firm iSuppli predicts 3 million embedded pico projectors will ship in 2012. Pico projector leader, Texas Instruments, sees them as ultimately being the biggest revenue generator for its DLP division.

As for me, I’m just not 100% sold on the idea, mainly because no matter how cool pico projectors look, it just makes me want a direct brain to computer interface that much more.

[image credits: LG]
[video credits: LG, TED]

The LightTouch uses IR to track motion and turn its 10.1 inch projection into a touchscreen.

How many hours a day do you spend staring at a flat surface? You probably don’t think of it that way, but TVs, computer screens, mobile phone displays – these are just boring flat surfaces until we place images on them. So why not forget those devices and keep the images? Light Blue Optics (LBO) is using holographic laser projectors to transform ordinary surfaces into interactive displays. Their Light Touch device projects a 10.1 inch screen and uses an IR light and camera to track finger position in that area. LBO recently announced at CES that it is working with Microsoft, Adobe, Toshiba and other partners to support Light Touch with their products. CES also named the device an as innovation honoree for the year. Check out a brief demo of Light Touch at CES in the video from BBCBlueRoom after the break.

We’ve seen various technologies looking to exploit the advantages of turning surfaces into interactive media. Projects like the mammoth RingWall are stationary and excel as multi-user interfaces. Pranav Mistry’s SixthSense device is highly portable and uses gestures to control data that is projected onto walls, newspapers or even hands. Light Touch is somewhere between these two extremes. It is small enough to be incorporated into spaces not traditionally dedicated to video interfaces, yet it is robust enough to handle multiple users and high quality video. The software and hardware it will interact with isn’t well defined yet. It can play videos and games off a stored memory, but it can also connect with computers, mobile phones, and other devices. The Light Touch could function as an attachable pico projector, I guess.

The Light Touch has some obvious limitations when it comes to luminosity. CES is in a well lit auditorium, and the display isn’t always bright enough to be clear to the video recording camera. That’s a common problem with small scale projectors that we’ve seen in the past. Of course, Light Touch does have the advantage of using laser technology, helping it maintain focus at any distance and on a curved surface. LBO is very proud of its version of holographic laser projection (HLP) which uses diffraction to produce images. The following video explains:

Go into many malls, airports, or museums these days and you’ll find interactive touchscreens incorporated into information kiosks. They’ve become something of a ubiquitous tool for guiding people how to use public spaces. I can see the Light Touch taking over that market almost entirely. While touchscreens do offer brighter displays, they also take up more space can be easily damaged by the repeated banging of anxious hands and fingers. The surface on Light Touch can never wear out and the delicate parts of the device can be secluded out of line of sight.

LBO's Light Speed system would project warning images onto mirrors or the windshield.

LBO and its HLP technology may also have an important role to play in automotive innovation. Their Light Speed projector system places important dials and warnings directly on the windshield or side view mirror to help drivers avoid accidents. It was integrated as part of the MINI concept car at the Paris Motor Show in 2008.

Despite these powerful niche markets that LBO could fill, however, I’m not sure if I prefer their device over related solutions. The SixthSense system does more and it will be open source, allowing for a wide number of applications to be created for it quickly. Tablet computers will provide mobility and versatility even if they are tied down to a single surface. In short, I think that the Light Touch is an amazing device, but I don’t think we’ll all have one. They’ll be incorporated into public spaces, maybe our cars, and that’s definitely cool. Projected touch screens are an important step in “waking up” our environment by incorporated digital information into it. Someday, of course, flat surfaces won’t just have computer images projected onto them, they’ll actually be made of computers. And I’ll probably still spend most of my day staring at them.

[photo credit: Light Blue Optics]
[video credit: Light Blue Optics, BBCBlueRoom]

The pico projector phone from Samsung makes it easy to share.

Not satisfied with just creating a cell phone with a projector, Samsung released the MBP-200, an independent device that just has the pico-projector module. This allows anyone with a micro-SD card to project images, video, or text anywhere they want. Right now it’s only available in Korea, but you can bet tech-geeks on this side of the Pacific are clamoring for a chance to get their hands on it. Check out the CES video for the MBP-200 after the break.

Want some more footage? Check out videos of the MBP-200′s competition. 3M has launched the MPro110, a projector with remarkably similar specs to the MBP, though with full VGA. Microvision hopes to trump everyone with their Integrated Photonics Module. The IPM supports the highest resolution of the three. Power consumption is a big issue, so all three companies are being tight-lipped about it (see note in comments). The Microvision mobile projector device, also called a “pico projector” may not ship until later this year, as a component laser is slow to go into mass production. While you’re waiting, you have to see the so-bad-it’s-good commercial for the device below.

Whenever I see a technology battle between companies I get really hopeful. Not only are 3M, TI, and Microvision going to push each other to make projectors smaller, more powerful, more efficient and with higher resolution, they should keep the prices low. It will be interesting to see which phone company (if any) picks up the 3M or Microvision module. Already Microvision is soliciting wide spread 3rd party development by offering their pico projector module in an evaluation kit for a (relatively) cheap $5k. Those of you with the hardware inclination may want to jump on and see what you can do with it.

We’ve talked about large scale projectors as art installations, and cameras with projectors, now that hand held devices and phones are included 2009 is officially the year of the projector. That should provide a lot of new ways to share information and creativity on the fly. I’m thrilled that TI/Samsung will start bringing movies to cell phones. Now, if I can only get people to stop bringing their cell phones to movies…

*photo credit: Noel McKeegan