We recently saw an Optoma handset that manages to incorporate a miniature projector as a part of its features and now Optoma has designed another solution with their handheld Pico Projector. It's anyone's guess, for now, as to how this pocket projector will fare against MicroVision's that was showcased earlier this year at CES. This battery-operated projector can be connected to any device that has an AV Out option.

The Pico Projector enables Home-cinema-sized viewing from personal media players, mobile phones, PDAs, cameras and gaming devices. It’s based on the new DLP Pico chipset. It’s smaller and lighter than many smart phones at 115g with dimensions of 50mm x 103mm x 15mm and can upsize media to a maximum of 60 inches – that’s up to 100 times the size of the source device screen.

Utilizing the latest LED illumination and DLP imaging technology the Optoma Pico projector combines clear, vivid, high contrast images with a 20,000 hour lamp life, with a simple plug and play operation.

"The handheld Pico projector represents the latest advancement in the mobile device display industry. We view the Pico projector as a completely new and exciting market – one which dramatically expands the reach and potential of projection products into new end user applications," says Dr. William Coggshall, Founder and President of Pacific Media Associates.

The Optoma Pico projector will be first shown in the US at InfoComm 2008 at the Texas Instruments booth (C909) and will be available in the UK in late 2008, with a worldwide launch in 2009. No pricing has been announced yet.