NEC Shows Spiffy Mobile Projector at CESNEC Shows Spiffy Mobile Projector at CES

There were lots of big empty spaces at CES this year, like vacant stores in a shopping mall. Many of the would-be exhibitors had booked hotels and meeting space, so they still came and set up shop off site. I'm not sure if NEC was one of them, but one might draw that conclusion. We pranced down to the ballroom at the Embassy Suites (who knew they had more than one!) to see NEC's interesting NP62 mobile projector.Here's the video.

The device isn't as tiny as some of the sexy prototypes we saw from the likes of 3M last year, but it is extremely light and portable -- it will fit in your suitcase. What's nice about this projector is that you don't even need a laptop. Just plug in a USB device or connect via Bluetooth, and you can project still images directly onto a surface.

Many presenters don't want to become master technicians, so this is pretty helpful, but NEC doesn't stop there. It actually creates a series of automated features that do everything from auto-power management (on/off) to focus, even when you change image size or surface.

Because the device only projects images, you can't run PowerPoint -- at least not in an animated fashion. You have to convert the presentation into static images. Maybe not a lot to ask for some, but this is clearly something that needs to be addressed.