LAS VEGAS — Recognizing that it’s not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cellphone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what’s playing on the small screen onto walls, tablecloths and other handy surfaces.
“Pico projectors” that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.
Microvision Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., was at the CTIA Wireless industry show this week to demonstrate a prototype of its projector. It’s about the size of two iPods, but by the time it goes on sale this year, it should be about 30 percent smaller, said Russell Hannigan, the company’s director of projector product management.
In a darkened room, the prototype beamed out surprisingly bright, crisp and large video from a connected iPod Nano: With the projector held 6 feet away from the wall, the image measured 6 feet diagonally and was as sharp as a DVD.
The projector is expected to sell for $300 to $400.
