For a long time now, projector-equipped cell phones remain a geek's pipe dream. With the advent of pocket-sized projectors, the dream doesn't seem to be far-fetched after all. Don't count on seeing it hit the market anytime soon, but DoCoMo presented a working prototype of a projector phone in CEATEC Japan 2008. It's basically one of DoCoMo's existing phones integrated with a DLP Pico projector by Texas Instruments that's downsized for mobile purposes. Because current cell phone batteries could only last 15 to 20 minutes while using the projector (it consumes 3W of power), the phone was left plugged in during the demonstration.

The prototype could reportedly project images of up to 20-inches in size with 480 × 320 resolution and 7.5lm brightness. DoCoMo claims that projector phones could be in the market within as early as three years but only on the most expensive models. Before that happens though, a few things need to be accomplished including the reduction of heat, power consumption, the cost, and of course, the size of the projector itself. Ultimately, DoCoMo would like to produce a projector phone that could last 100 minutes on a built-in battery.