As a journalist writing about displays, I get a lot of press releases in my e-mail inbox. Some I actually read, some I can tell have nothing to do with my interests and I discard. Some catch my eye even though they do not appear directly related to displays.

Matt Brennesholtz
Insight Media Analyst

A press release from Laplink caught my eye like this. The release was about version 5 of Laplink Everywhere, a software application that allows you to access data and software on your PC from any location. Similar software is available from Citrix (GoToMyPC) or LogMeIn Inc., although the Laplink press release says (naturally) that the Laplink software both has more features and costs less.

With the new release of Laplink Everywhere, remote access is possible from a PC, Mac, mobile phone, or even a Wii. Access from a mobile phone is an interesting idea—but who would want to look at his desktop on the screen of his mobile phone? Even if you have a high-end mobile phone, there just aren’t enough pixels. Realistically, anything other than very basic functions will require an auxiliary display, preferably as compact and portable as the smart phone itself.

Sound familiar? Small, portable, high-resolution display? Maybe we should consider a picoprojector. The current generation may not do the job, not with at most 20 lumens and VGA resolution. The photo shows a PowerPoint slide projected by a 7 lumen, VGA MPro-110. Even in the photo, it can be seen that the image leaves something to be desired. Maybe it would be OK for a quick presentation in a dark room, but developing the PowerPoint in the first place: Not likely!

The functionality of these projectors is increasing rapidly with higher light output, higher resolution and longer battery life. A new generation of picoprojector seems to be arriving every 6 months or so and these limitations are not likely to be long-term problems.

I have a SXGA (1280 x 1024) display on my desktop, and other people have higher resolution. Most picoprojectors today are VGA or less. This is not a fundamental limitation of the microdisplay technology; certainly higher resolution imagers for picoprojectors are possible. For example a SXGA device with 4.5-micron pixels would have a 0.29" diagonal and an active area of 5.8 x 4.6mm. Currently most people believe an imager for a picoprojector can be no more than about 7mm high. The 4.6 mm device height would allow 2.4 mm for the package to meet this requirement; something likely to be relatively easily to do once the package designers put their minds to it. This relatively large image diagonal (by picoprojector standards, at least) would allow relatively high throughput through the use of larger LEDs.

When accessing your desktop from a smart phone, the display may not be the only issue. Would you like to do any serious work on your smartphone keyboard, even if it is nominally a QWERTY keyboard? While in Japan and China they write entire novels on a cell phone keyboard that is not for me. Nor, I suspect, for the typical user of Laplink Everywhere. Not to worry, technology has a solution to this problem as well. Virtual keyboards are available today, and at reasonable prices. One could easily be integrated with a picoprojector and WiFi or other mobile data service to make a complete computer monitor in a hand-held, battery powered station. To complete the package you can throw in cell phone service, it doesn’t cost much, take much space or consume much power so it won’t interfere with the basic function of accessing your desktop.

Nothing like this is available today, but I see no technological reason why it shouldn’t show up at CES in 2010. It would be relatively expensive but that wouldn’t be a major issue with the likely user community of traveling businessmen. If they could avoid carrying their laptop with them everywhere they go, it might seem cheap at any price.

Insight Media is in the process of updating the 2008 Picoprojector Report. Forecasts going forward for picoprojectors are in the 10’s of millions per year and one of the big questions to be answered in the report is who will buy all those units and how will they be used.