January 5th, 2010
This week you’ll see a lot of new gadgets in the news — that’s because it’s time for the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Every year, technology companies gather around this conference to demo cutting-edge contraptions and speculate about what the year holds in new developments. Let’s take a look at what we can expect in new projectors:
Touch. As the brand new Light Blue Optics “Light Touch” demonstrates, the “touch” trend in electronics is now entering the projector realm. Their 10-inch projector was announced today, which turns any surface into a touch screen using laser technology. Their simulated examples are definitely breathtaking (see above) — but we won’t see how well it really works until the conference.
High-definition. “HD” is getting non-stop buzz everywhere as Blu-ray players and discs get cheaper and cheaper. Vivitek plans to release two 1080p projector models at CES and others will surely follow suit. In spite of the buzz, HD projection is still so new that it’s prohibitively expensive: thousands for a new unit.
Small and portable. Ever heard of a “pico projector”? It’s a new trend in pocket-sized projectors. A few versions were already released in 2009 but we’ll probably see these mini projectors crammed into everything from laptops to cell phones at CES. Texas Instruments is demoing a new model and Logic Bolt just released a buzzed-about new projector-phone. Unfortunately, even new models have abysmal battery life, and dim, tiny screens. We’ll see if this new trend gets off the ground.
3D. It’s taking over at the movie theaters and it might take over at home one day as well. Optoma announced yesterday that it would release a whole line of 3D projectors at CES. Last year, 3D flat screens made a major splash at CES, but none have caught on yet. Panasonic was a pioneer in the area and will likely keep it up. However, without a standard format, these technologies remain an experiment. In other words: Don’t expect your neighbor to have a 3D projector any time soon.
Energy-savers. Greener technology always attracts attention at CES and the projector niche will have its fair share of similar developments. The most energy-consuming aspect of a projector is the bright light projecting the image. NEC is solving that problem by releasing a projector line that throws less light — it’s a short throw projector. Instead, the user keeps it closer to the screen. But limited light and distance clearly has its disadvantages.
What do you think of these new technologies? Leave a comment.
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