Many of us remember when projectors were bulky things the size of a suitcase. Not anymore. Now they are phone sized. NTT Docomo is getting into the act too. They unveiled a prototype cell phone that doubles as a video projector and demonstrated it at CEATEC JAPAN 2008. The projector would give you a 20-inch image from a distance of about 80 centimeters and roughly 100 minutes of viewing time, which is enough to watch TV shows, podcasts and short films, if not 2 hour movies.

Red, green and blue LEDs are used as the light source. Pixel count is 480 × 320 (HVGA), and its luminance is 7.5lm. The power consumption is about 3W. The company plans to have a working version of the device ready for market in about three years. The way the tech in these projector phones is shaping up, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took half that time.

[Nikkei]