CES Technology Trends, Part II: Mini-projectors

Some of you might remember the other day when I reported that CES is full of new trends in technology, and one of them is 3D for television and computer monitors. At CES 2009, I got to see another trend in technology: miniature projectors for mobile units.

This is a projector that you could attach to your mobile device and then project your video files or still photos on the wall. This technology has been under development for quite some time, and I remember covering it about two years ago.

I have been following Optoma’s mini-projector for the last few months, and I finally had a chance to see it at CES. When I passed the booth, I saw a display that I thought was a 12 inch LED screen, but it turned out to be a projection. I was pretty impressed with what I saw, and realized that mini-projection is the wave of the future.

Butterfly Technology also had a mini-projector on display, and I have included a YouTube video from projectorcentral.com below so you can see what it was like. Butterfly’s booth was concealed in darkness to show what this projector can do, and it was also impressive.

Later on, I walked by the 3M booth and found that the giant company also had a mini-projector on display. Did I or you need any more hints to see where the technology was going?

Just to let you know, most of these mini-projectors are about the size of a mobile device itself. We have a long way to go before these mini-projectors will be attachments to a phone like most cellular phone cameras are now.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvlKSjmXKxg&eurl=http://www.projectorcentral.com/ces09_butterfly_video.htm[/youtube]