LightBeam Pico Projector Turns Surfaces Into Screens, Random Motion Into Remote

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It’s been a pretty good while now since we’ve heard the words “pico projector” around here, and the LightBeam model is going to try and make up for the lack with an interesting new control style and some features you may not have seen coming.

The LightBeam pico projector is what’s called a “nomadic” projector, in that it can not only track but also reorient its display to suit the surface onto which it’s transmitting its images. It uses a webcam to follow movement, and when it can note movement, it adjusts the display to match. So if you’re firing an image onto a piece of paper you’re carrying around, and you move that paper a bit to the left, the LightBeam will adjust its display to follow the movement of the paper. The LightBeam also packs in motion controls, like rotating a coffee mug, to change the frame that’s displayed.

Of course, the LightBeam doesn’t come without its share of problems. The images that the LightBeam puts out are really rather low-resolution, so spotting fine details (including text in some cases) is probably going to be pretty difficult. And those motion controls look great, but in practice you’d likely find yourself jumping frames when you didn’t really want to because you set your coffee mug down wrong or fidgeted just a little too much during the presentation.

Still though, with a couple of shakedown cruises and an eye toward improvement, I could see something like this taking off nicely in, say, kitchens and maybe even bathrooms as a way to provide reading material in a confined space, or perhaps as an extra feature for smartphones. There’s no word as yet on prices or release dates, but given the circumstances, I’d say it can’t be much or soon, respectively.

But what do you guys think about the LightBeam pico projector? Figure that it’s just a sad gimmick with too many flaws to be worthwhile? Or do you think it’s the start of something great? No matter what you think, head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think!