Motorola has teamed up with Microvision to put laser-projector technology into mobile phone handsets.

The idea of putting a tiny projector into a mobile phone is nothing new - science fiction has been doing it for decades - but the practicalities of fitting an entire projector into the case of a phone and making it work from the phone battery have so far prevented the idea becoming reality.

Using lasers for the projection helps, but introduces the potential for blinding the presenter - something the current generation of nano-projectors has to be designed to avoid.

Projectors as small as match boxes have been demonstrated, so it is technically possible to fit such a device into a mobile phone, but to be popular there must be minimal impact on the design and function of the handset itself - it must be a phone with a projector, not a projector with a phone.

Motorola selected Microvision based on the slim design and low power consumption of its projectors.

Motorola could certainly do with something to set its phones apart from the competition, and the first company to produce a working phone with an in-built projector will gain considerable status. ®

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