Electronics,Small Business,Science & Technology

In order to be able to give a great presentation, the ability to convey your ideas in an interesting, and vibrant way to your audience is key to your success. Most of the time this can be accomplished through the delivery of an eloquently given speech. More often than not, however, visual materials are needed. Drawings, and charts work rather well, but slideshows, and videos tend to make an even better impression due to their dynamic content. Adding these bits of media to a presentation is fairly simple when you have gathered in a meeting room, but not quite as easy when you are on the go. The present projectors are much too bulky to be taken to a restaurant, or used on the street in order to utilize their capabilities. Architects, real estate agents, and emergency workers have longed for a way to make the rather large, and bulky projectors much more portable. At first, technology seemed to be trudging along trying to figure out a way to get quality video from a small package. Somewhat surprisingly, 3M, a company well known for it's adhesive products, was able to beat the other guys to the punch.

While other companies tried to make a smaller projector that was much more complicated than it should be, 3M opted to create a simple design that would work on a basic level. Many said it couldn’t be done but 3M proved the naysayers wrong. The MPro110 by 3M is the world’s first micro-projector that can project 50-inch diagonal images in a dark room and 10-inch images under bright light. The unit uses a rechargeable battery pack that takes about 1 to 2 hours to charge up, and delivers around 30 min. of projection time. While this is much too short for a full length feature film, this handheld projector definitely gets the job done when you need to make a short presentation, or give a demonstration while on the road. But, if necessary, this device does come with an adapter that can be plugged into a wall outlet to accomodate longer usage. Digital cameras, cellphones, and laptops will be able to take full advantage of the powerful capabilities this device delivers in such a compact, and sleek design. The MPro110 is a marvel of technology weighing a mere 5.4 ounces and fits neatly in your pocket.

In order to be able to get this gadget out to the public before the competition, 3M opted out of using miniature lasers to project an image, and instead focused on utilizing molded prizms with rounded edges to get decent image quality while keeping the size of this device down to that of a deck of playing cards. The MPro110 uses a one-watt LED bulb for the lamp’s projector, and is highly efficient in focusing the emitted light to project a quality image. The MPro110 displays video at a 640 by 480 resolution (standard definition TV quality / VGA), and costs around $350-$365US.