A new wave of portable digital projectors is sweeping in. Having progressed from suitcase sized in the first generations to about the size of a standard Kodak Carousel
projector in the 90s and then progressively smaller and brighter down to the tiniest state of the art at about the size of a smartphone, like the "DLP pico projector" at the right.
The "pico DLP" projectors use a little tiny version of a DLP chip with LED light sources to shoot images out of their tiny packages. Sounds like the way to use DLP technology.
But the new wave... Two nifty new things are happening with projectors this year to make it into the hands of consumers by sometime in 2010.
One is that the pico DLP projector technology is being squeezed into cell phones.
The other is a brand new projection technique that will take the pico DLP to the next level -- and basically eclipse all those that came before.
For the pico-projector-in-cell-phone clothing, these are already starting to show overseas, like the Samsung i7410. Awesome. Obviously super for the true road warrior. No more "setting up" the projector -- just whip it out of your pocket and flash onto your client's wall. Also handy for showing your pictures to more than one friend at a time. For you, anyway, if not so much for them. 
And as Jennifer Bergen imagines, this could take kick-me signs to a whole new place.
But for this new technology that's a-coming see the Microvision "PicoP" laser projection device. The concept is similar to the DLP pico projectors in terms of size and portability, but the image it projects is a whole new ball game.
The colors are amazing even in demo videos and the super neatest trick is that it is always in focus. One is tempted to say that it is "automatically" in focus but that's not really correct. Because of they use lasers and because of the brilliant way that they use them, the image just is always in focus -- even on curved or uneven surfaces.
I immediately imagined troups in the field getting a brief few minutes to take a break. With a gizmo like the Microvision PicoP, they could just point this at the side of a Hummer and show a flick or share a video from home. Time to go? turn it off and shove it in your pocket. Way cool.
On the practical side, it's even easier to do the presentations and the kick-me signs and all sorts of fun stuff. See the ideas that the Microvision folks have posted: right here at their "application gallery".
I think I want one of these.
These things rock badly