Tech News
Texas Instruments announces cell phone DLP projector
By Stevie Smith
Mar 27, 2007, 15:56 GMT

There’s little doubt that the prospect of watching movies on your cell phone’s miniscule display lacks the sizeable oomph factor related to nestling on the couch and glorying in the widescreen LCD excellence that modern monstrous technology provides. But hope is not lost, because at this week’s CTIA Wireless 2007 Show, Texas Instruments has opted to unveil a piece of mobile technology that projects itself as a stylishly trendy alternative to big movies on tiny screens.

Texas Instruments’ has been showcasing public demos of its new “Pico” projector, which is a minute digital light processing (DLP) movie projector that is more than capable of being housed within existing cell phone handsets. Texas Instruments has even produced a fully working prototype that beams from a (fake) handset in order to show the projector’s manufacturing possibilities. The Pico projector itself is equipped with a DLP processor, three lasers, and a power supply, and, in terms of physical attributes, is approximately 1.5” in length. 

Texas Instruments maintains that the mini-projector is able to efficiently beam images onto a screen or wall in DVD quality, while obviously providing a viewing area vastly superior to that of a handset’s LCD screen display. The Dallas-based tech company also claims that the projector’s processor should be sufficient to power images equal to that of current widescreen TV sets.

At present, Texas Instruments has not yet revealed when its new Pico projector will be made officially available for purchase and inclusion into cell phone handsets. However, the Pico does illustrate the company’s continuing belief in a possible rejuvenation of DLP projection technology, which is seen as a cumbersome and overly large television format in the physical sense but is more ecologically friendly than LCD and Plasma in terms of power consumption.

Beyond the LCD-dominated TV market, DLP projection technology is making an impact on other media avenues, and Texas Instruments has even begun installation of DLP projectors in North American movie theatres. The company expects some 5,000 theatres to be running on DLP by the close of 2007.