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Turn your phone into a projector

Microvision says its new technology can do just that.

Mike Yamamoto Staff Writer, CNET News.com
Mike Yamamoto is an executive editor for CNET News.com.
Mike Yamamoto

So you like the idea of watching TV or movies on your MP4 player or cell phone, but the screens are just too small for you to make an accurate call on instant replay, especially if your next paycheck is on the line with the game's outcome. All that could change with new technology from Microvision, which claims to have built the world's smallest projector.

The company's Pico Projector, which is planned for release at this week's Consumer Electronics Show, is designed to be embedded in handheld products to project "photos, videos, movies and TV from personal mobile devices onto virtually any surface." Microvision, which makes such products as handheld scanners and wearable displays, says the resulting images would be "extremely sharp and vivid" whether projected to be the size of a laptop screen or a large TV. That sounds a tad like company hype, but this technology would still be more practical than lugging around your 60-inch plasma TV.