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Survey: Do You Want to Beam Movies from your Cell Phone

030609_sz_projector.jpg This month Samsung releases their W7900 cell phone in Korea. What's so special about it? It has a built-in projector that can beam a 50-inch image on any surface. With digital light processing chips getting smaller and smaller, mini projectors may become as common a feature set in a mobile phone as a digital camera. But is that a good thing?

Just think about your bus or subway commute every day. How many tinny soundtracks do you hear coming from earbuds plugged into those around you – or can you not hear anything because you have your own earbuds stuffed into your ears? How about those preoccupied pedestrians who are too busy texting to look up to see the red light at the cross walk. Adding another feature, one that will allow people to share video whenever they want wherever they want may be a complete disaster.

New Scientist discusses the new tech in their February 28th issue. An interview with Andrew Greaves, a mobile interactions specialist at the University of Lancaster in the UK shares, "People could screen material on a bus, say, that could be indecent – and that might even lead to the need for legislation."

More on the technology after the jump...

 
 

Earlier in Feburary Texas Instruments release a new DLP chip that is small enough to put into a mobile, yet can beam out an image with 850-x-480 resolution – that's equivalent to a standard DVD! While you won't be able to get a 50 inch movie and still keep that stellar resolution, you can watch DVD-quality movies the size of a sheet of 8.5-x-11 inch paper.

While privacy and security are a risk with a technology like this, Robert Caunt, an analyst with CSS Insight, says, "Just as the Blackberry brought email to the restaurant table, this could bring us impromptu [Powerpoint] presentations we might rather not have."

Groan...

photo: SF Gate

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Surveys, phones & communication, home theater, projector

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Comments (5)

I don't understand the appeal of this in everyday life. I see the business world using this much more.

posted by DriveBot on March 6th 2009 at 10:35am
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powerpoint on the fly! i think this is a cool idea but since you can watch a video on just about any phone, i doubt it's a make or break feature.

the risk involved of exposing the public to projected indecent material isn't that big of a problem. at first you would see people doing it, but it'll fade away eventually. like laser pointers.

posted by FightTheFuture on March 6th 2009 at 12:40pm
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I've been hoping this would be the next big thing! I really want to be able to go to a store, take a pic of a lamp, mirror or something (or download from a site) and project the item onto the wall at home, to see what it would look like. I've had my eye on some large scale sconces for a remodel, and projecting them would solve a bunch of issues for me and the client.

posted by pelicolina on March 6th 2009 at 2:31pm
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pelicolina, that's a really rad idea! I never thought of that.

posted by lil' soso on March 6th 2009 at 3:26pm
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this is the sliest argument I've heard all week.

people could put porn on their laptops and screen that on the bus too.

is it really an issue?

the tech is cool.

the linked article is yellow journalism.

posted by fyrebug on March 7th 2009 at 5:33pm
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