In the 1860’s, John Henry Peppper showed how illusions could be made to appear and disappear using a plate glass  and a mirror with and some fancy lighting. In lieu of the having a real person standing around with the image of them mirrored, pico and micro projectors can be used instead. These small and inexpensive projectors are typically hundreds to thousands of dollars cheaper than the big bulky projectors found in your university classroom. However, the pico projectors these days have almost same set of features and inputs as the bigger ones do so you can connect to your iPhone and project your scary video as a hologram illusion to scare your roommates or use it as a neat trick at your next party. This idea was brought back to life by Tupacs hologram this weekend at the Coachella Music Festival.

Here are a couple of examples of Pepper’s Ghost in action.

Philips is releasing one of the smallest USB powered pico projectors with the aim of capturing mobile businessman and presenters that carry their laptops with them. This new addition to the Philips pico projector lineup fits easily into a laptop bag at just 2.8 x 5.1 x 3.5 inches and hardly adds any weight to your commute at just over half a pound.

On top of being able to run off a USB port, the projector has it’s own built in battery for 1.5 hours in bright mode which utilizes the full 30 lumens of the projector and 2 hours in standard mode. The pocket projector can output an image at a resolution of 640 x 360 pixels.

The projector looks like it would be a good candidate for people who need to make portable presentations on the go for a few people at a time. Since the lumen output is only up to 30, a brighter projector may be desired for those looking to present or share their media with larger groups. However, as a toy, this pico will turn heads and be an awesome companion for the gadget lover that no one else has. The release date for this projector is this April, 2012.

At around $290, there are some brighter projectors out on the market, but for a tiny USB powered Pico Projector, this would be the best bet.

For a detailed list of specs, see below:

Technology : DLP

Resolution : 640 x 360 pixels

Brightness (lumens) : Up to 30 lumens

Contrast : 1500:1

Focus : Manual

Lamp : LED RGB

Lamp life time (in hours) : 30,000 hours

Projection Distance : From 0.354 x 2.125 m

Screen size : 0.25 cm to 1.5 m

Inputs / Outputs : USB entry
1x 3.5 mm jack output

Size : Height: 7 cm
Width: 13 cm
Depth: 9 cm

Weight : 246 g

Included accessories : Carry case

Other : Micro SD/SDHC card slot
2 GB internal memory
MP4 media player
1W speaker
Battery life in standard/bright mode: 2 hours / 1.5 hours
LED indicator: battery charge

Tech giant Google is hard at work on a pair of glasses that can allow users to see augmented reality. Imagine driving a car with see-through glasses and seeing the driving directions without ever having to look at your phone or GPS. Looking at reviews of restaurants while standing behind a pair of Oakley glasses seemingly doing nothing. Reading the daily news while looking at a whitewall. The possibilities are endless and with Google backing the device, you can be sure a lot of time and effort will be placed into these high tech shades.

The glasses are rumored to be coming out late 2012 and most likely running a stripped down version of Google’s Flagship Android operation system. They will include earpieces too which will allow for listening to music and you will undoubtedly be able to make phones calls with them if Google pulls this off right. Although this was meant to be a top secret project, some Google employees reportedly just couldn’t keep this news from coming out into the public just like the open source mentality at Google.

However, some people might actually be averse to this idea. Who would not want to have extra information in this fast paced world you might ask? People who do not want to see ads in their field of vision at all times of the day. If there’s one thing we know, there will be a ads in this augmented reality specs.

It is yet undetermined the mechanism behind the glasses but from what technology currently exits, there may be a Pico Projector behind these glasses or it may even be a
see through version of Samsung’s flexible LED displays.

The gallery below shows depictions of what Google Glasses may look like.

MicroVision has recently closed down their online store with suggestions on their site to now buy their products on reseller sites such as Amazon.com.

This is a very intriguing development and could mean many things.  Are they now so big that they can leverage their strategic distribution like they are saying, or are they downsizing to cut costs?  Hopefully its the first option as we really would like to see how MicroVision improved upon their pico projectors.  Their latest interactive demo they showed at CES is an interesting design idea and hopefully they will be able to increase the lumens to make it a bit more practical.  We are all hoping for the best from MicroVision as they have really helped spread the word about what pico and micro projectors are worldwide.

AAXA has released their P3 pico projector and it sure offers a good value.

At $269 the P3 offer 50 lumens and a 1024×600 resolution.  This is the first pico I’ve seen with such a high native resolution.   Similar projectors in this category are:

AAXA P4 80 lumens $339

Optoma PK301 50 Lumen $339

Favi E3  50 Lumen $349

Samsung SP-H03 30 lumen $299

It’s great to see AAXA release what I would categorize as a great bang for you buck product.  Hopefully I can get a hold of one to review myself but for now you can check out a good review with a video from picopros.com

http://www.picopros.com/article/picopros-reviews-aaxa-technologies-p3-pico-projector

Shake up at Syndiant, best known for Pico projector microdisplays

Karl Guttag co-founder and CTO of Syndiant has announced that he will be leaving the company.  He states in his new blog that he is still a firm believer in LCoS technology’s and its potential to hit big volume markets with pico projectors.  His blog can be found at http://www.kguttag.com/.

About Syndiant:

“Hand-held consumer electronics are constrained by their small screen size. Ultra-portable projectors, or pico projectors, allow consumers to enjoy a large screen experience in portable electronics, such as smart phones, notebook computers, digital media players, game consoles and cameras. OEM Customers indicate that all key technology elements are ready with the exception of a light modulator that meets cost, form-factor, resolution and power requirements.

Syndiant’s technical advantage lies in its patented architecture, which uses powerful but elegantly simple parallel processing to enable the world’s smallest and highest resolution light modulating chips used in ultra-portable or pico projectors.”

LG HW300T Micro Projector

LG now has 300 Lumen WXGA DLP projector available for $699.99.  It only seems to be available in select retailers and mostly outside of the United States.
This micro projector features a built-n TV tuner, HDMI, VGA and USB ports.  Weighing 1.72 lbs its one of the heavier micro projectors but is also one of the brightest.   Its dimensions are  6.3″ x 2.1″ x 4.7″ which also make it SLIGHTLY bigger than their micro projector but it is definitely still a micro projector.

LG has their HX350T projector at 250 lumens and also has a TV tuner built in.  It looks like LG is still very strongly tied to their TV bonds and their customers still want to use LG products to watch TV.

As everything is getting smaller and downloadable, I would imagine people will start streaming their shows from their TV onto their micro projectors.  For how LG seems to have a customer base big enough to warrant the need for TV tuners.

Viewsoinc PLED-W200 Micro Projector

Viewsonic has recently released their PLED W200 250 ANSI lumen WXGA 1280×800 projector.

With dimensions of 5.1” x 5.0” x 1.3” and lightweight at only 0.9 lb, it’s designed for portability and convenience to move from location to location.

This projector along with the Vivitek Qumi Q2 and LG HW300T are the latest micro projectors available that can are 250+ lumens.

This is a pretty nice projector if you have $600 laying around for a projector.  The auto keystone correction and 120hz/3d ready are all great features that many people are looking for.  With its LED bulbs it also has a 20,000 hour lamp life.