Honey I Shrunk the Projector Lamp at CES!

A lot of exciting innovations are coming out of the Consumer Electronics Show 2008 in Las Vegas this year, and one thing seems clear - the projector industry seems to be headed full-steam ahead into the land of miniaturization. Entrepreneurs, scientists and manufacturers are eyeing everyday products from cell-phones to pocket watches with the intent of equipping them with powerful mini-projectors. Technology has now enabled companies around the world to make what was once science fiction, into what is today, science fact.

The latest news regarding the miniaturization of projectors and projector lamps comes from two separate companies; Microvision and Innoswell - both companies have been showing off their mini-projectors at CES 2008.

Microvision introduced an exciting, completely innovative, pocket sized projector this year at CES 2008. This projector is completely different from any conventional mini-projector ever seen before. The projector is literally the size of one of those old Texas Instruments calculators that kids had in High School back in 1990’s. It operates by firing three laser beams towards a mirror that changes its angle 30 million times per second to achieve a quality 848 by 480 pixel image. Simply put this mini-projector is absolutely amazing and could change the business world forever.

Innoswell, one the other hand, introduced a projector in the conventional sense only much, much smaller in size. Despite the size difference the projector uses Epson latest D7 panel that features a 0.55 inch 3LCD chipset that is pretty much the exact same as Epson’s traditional LCD panels only slightly smaller. Epson LCD panels found in most modern projectors are between 1 and 3 inches. The mini-projector is powered by an LED projector lamp, which despite being one of the most powerful LEDs in existence, only musters a puny 100 ANSI lumens. The major problem with this mini-projector is the brightness of the projector lamp; it seems that until companies such as Innoswell figure out a solution to this problem, mini-projectors like this will remain a novelty.