What is a pocket projector?
A pocket projector, also known as a Pico Projector, is a small hardware device made to act as a normal projector by showcasing content from a smartphone, camera, tablet, notebook or memory device onto a wall or any significant flat surface. They are battery-charged and portable with an ability of displaying up to 150 inches of screen size, making them the best alternative to a normal bulky projector.
While pocket projectors are also known as handheld projectors, Pico projectors or mobile projectors, they are commonly mistaken for mini projectors. Pico projectors are loosely defined to be under 0.75 lbs. while mini projectors are over 0.75–1 lbs. Essentially, pocket projectors can be categorized in the size of a pack of cigarettes because of its miniature size while mini projectors are a size bigger but smaller than the normal projectors. You can compare to Elephas S1 pocket projector, it is a phone projector that you can put it into your pant.
How Does a Pocket Projector Work?
Pocket projectors use ground-breaking, state of the art technology devices. Usually, the chips that bring display in a normal cinema are shrunk into the size of a finger nail and integrated into the pocket projector.
For this system to work, a normal lens is not applicable. Instead, a new kind of laser technology is used. This technology scans very thin laser beams quickly as the beams are very narrow. Surprisingly, the image will always be on focus regardless of how close or far you are from the image.
This is an innovative way of technology as the desired image is deconstructed into electronic pulses. The electric signals are therefore decoded into three-colored lasers; red, green and blue. The colors combine into a single modulated light path that represents a full pallet of colors. At the heart of the technology is a tiny scanner called the Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS). It is a tiny mirror that reflects the color reproducing 30 million pixels per second, line by line.
What the technology does is recreating every pixel uniquely one at a time. It switches the lasers on and off on whatever intensity you need to achieve a great scale very well and quickly. The lasers will be modulated at very high speeds to bring the best image to you.
The Pico Projector is currently a plug and play accessory. The user would take their cellphone or media player or whatever device they are using, plug it into the accessory via the USB port and be able to project images off their device to be much bigger.
Generally there are 4 types of Pico projectors;
i) Stand-alone — they receive the input/image via a cable (USB, A/V) in which case you cannot stream the video signal
ii) USB Projector — these are stand-alone projectors that use an external USB to power up and exchange data hence, requiring a hardware device like a laptop or tablet. They have no battery
iii) Media Player — these are projectors that incorporate external memory devices such as a memory card which is used to play media directly from there
iv) Embedded Projector — these type of projectors have their processor engines embedded inside a mobile device like a phone, camera, laptop, tablet or PDA.
What is a Pocket Projector Used For?
Pocket projectors, just as the name suggests, are mainly used for their portability purposes. Unlike original projectors that are mainly sold on the basis of sharpness and brightness, pocket projectors are usually popular because of their ability to literally fit into a pocket.
The Pico Projector allows you to project movies and photos just about anywhere you want. It will transform the way people deliver their personal media content. They are used in different applications:
· Mobile — studies show that people prefer viewing and sharing photos with a projector rather than a regular mobile phones.
· Gaming/movie — through a VGA or HDMI cable, one can display a game or moviefrom the machine to the projector without having to plug to the television
· Presentations — if you are an entrepreneur, you can always impress your investors by having a pocket projector so that you may present your project at any given time.
Conclusion
Pocket Projectors are an excellent choice for mobility, low energy consumption and resolution as compared to large projectors. Pocket projectors are quickly replacing older, immobile projectors and the market for pocket projectors is rapidly growing.
What consumers want these days is to have complete freedom to do whatever they want, whenever they want. People invest in their cellphones and their TV for entertainment purposes. What Pico Projector does is to combine the two together and give people the rich media experience on the large screen but with all the mobility of a cellphone.