In 2000, I got more-or-less exclusive access to a data projector. I was very excited – this thing was sleek! Weighing in at a mere 6 kilorgrams, it was no bigger than my torso and came in ultra-designery beige-and-grey. Six months later, I sprained my wrist trying to put it on a table. I made a little whimpering sound, and the executives around the table asked me if I was ok.
Move forward to 2006 – my latest projector weighs in at 1.5 kilograms, is the size of my foot (I’m a size 13), and comes in a curvy iPod white. It hooks up to my laptop successfully three out of every four times I try, and sounds like a small propellor plane starting up whenever I turn it on.
Like digital cameras, projectors have improved over the last few years. Unlike digital cameras, they have not become tiny, ubiquitous and integrated into the average joe (or joanna’s) average day.
If you’re anything like me, you dream about finding a very small, very portable projector. So imagine how excited I was when I stumbled on this:
Microvision’s pico projector is described in one of their recent press releases as “ultra-minature”. The same press release talks about their teaming up with Motorola to build the first projector integrated into a cell phone. Up to now, price and portability have restricted projector use to powerpoint warriors and home theatre nuts. But now, I can see the ability to easily and flexibly project data on any surface for an audience (or even for one’s own personal use) becoming socially and professionally important.
And I can’t wait to see how consumers start to use this capability in ways the designers could never have guessed.
Tags: design, powerpoint, projector, tech, technology
