World's Smallest Digital Light Projector

MITSUBISHI DIGITAL ELECTRONICS, ON February 8, 2005, introduced its PocketProjector™, one of the world’s smallest LED projectors. Weighing just 14 ounces and fitting easily into the palm of a hand or a coat pocket, the tiny projector is built for fun and creative applications. It can be battery powered or used with a universal car adapter for truly mobile video.

Photo taken at this year's CES (Consumer Electronics Show), at the TI (Texas Instruments) booth ("neon glow" artistic filter effect applied using Adobe Photoshop CS).

The PocketProjector has one of the shortest projection distances of any mobile projector on the market today: Users can easily create a 20-inch diagonal screen with only a little over a foot of projection distance, and a 40-inch screen image in less than a yard. With a special suggested retail launch price of $699, the affordable PocketProjector is the next must-have gadget, and the coolest gift for 2005.

“For digital cameras, handheld gaming and portable DVD players, the PocketProjector is the newest display tool or toy of choice,” said James Chan, director, projector product marketing for Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “This projector can go where no projector has gone before. Just imagine being able to whip out a big screen from your coat pocket—people are going to have so much fun with it.”

The PocketProjector powers on or off instantly for quick and easy start-up, and can display images from a notebook computer, portable DVD player, and gaming consoles for immediate use almost anywhere. It is lighted by three Lumileds™ LEDs (red, green, blue) that produce an SVGA (800 x 600 pixels) image formed digitally by the latest DLP™ chip by Texas Instruments. The projector’s advanced lighting technology is rated to last an unprecedented 20,000 hours; with an average use of five hours per day, the lamp is expected to last over ten years!

“Our new PocketProjector is one of the most advanced products I’ve seen in a long time,” said Aki Ninomiya, vice president, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. “It establishes new standards and creates all new applications and markets for projection displays.”

Mitsubishi’s new PocketProjector will be available in July 2005 through online retailers and major retail channels at a suggested retail price of $699.

Note from DC: Concept drawings that suggest even cell phones could have built-in projectors in a few years, so you can really have your large screen video on the go.