Chinese consumer electronics giant Haier was demoing a nifty little short-throw projector at IFA 2014, one that project the moving picture on a mirror that's then projected back on the target screen.
The device, which has yet to be named and will be available in the first quarter of next year, uses Texas Instruments DLP and LED technology which should improve the bulb's lifespan by a factor of 10.
The projector is 3D compatible, offers a brightness of 2000cd/m^2, a contrast ratio of 5000:1 and offers a full HD resolution (1920 x 1080 pixels) with Haier hinting that a 4K projector might be available at some point.
Android in a projector
During the quick demonstration in a well lit room, the projector was within a few centimetres of the wall it was projecting on; Haier says that placing the projector just 5cm from the wall produces a 60-inch picture. Increase that to 1m and the final diagonal reaches a whopping 150-inch.
Interestingly, the device is smart-enabled. It can be used as a standalone computer since it packs a dual-core ARM-based Rockchip RK3066 processor with a quad-core Mali GPU, Android 4.2, 1GB of RAM, two 8W speakers and 16GB onboard storage.
Connectivity and expansion capabilities include a microSD card, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, HDMI, VGA and DVI inputs. You can also control the projector via an app and it will support Miracast.
