Pico Projectors—
Firefly or Bright Future?
Raimund Dachselt

University of Magdeburg | [e-mail]

Jonna Häkkilä

University of Oulu | Nokia Research Center | [e-mail]

Matt Jones

Swansea University | [e-mail]

Markus Löchtefeld

German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence | [e-mail]

Michael Rohs

University of Munich | [e-mail]

Enrico Rukzio

University of Duisburg-Essen | [e-mail]

 

• Figure 1. A pico prototype housing an iPod, a projector, and distance sensors.

There’s something magical about light. Perhaps you can remember using a flashlight as a child to trace a space story on the bedroom ceiling, or, more exciting still, to enhance scary stories under the canvas of a camping holiday. Or, on a long, lazy summer afternoon, the school vacation coming soon, reflecting the sun off the glass of your watch, daringly close to the teacher’s face.

Today’s mobile technology landscape already has its magical devices: the alluring touchscreen phones and tablets. Perhaps, though, in these trapped-light boxes, we are missing something of the wonder of projection. Heads down, we prod the surface of these Narcissus pools, consumed mainly by our own reflections as we engage in the digital world.

There is an emerging mobile technology, however, that might save us from such introverted computing. Through the emergence of various pico-projector technologies, it is now possible to build projector phones, camcord-ers with built-in projectors, and small accessory projectors that can be connected to other mobile devices.

In terms of both quality and impact, these small video-output devices are near the state of the art seen in camera phones a decade ago. They are niche, geeky devices, and the marketing scenarios presented in ads are disheartening: businessmen watching catch-up TV on a hotel wall, groups of executives enjoying an ad-hoc PowerPoint presentation at the watercooler.

March + April 2012