Right. Tiny projectors have been done before. Samsung had a smartphone with a projector back in 2014, but nobody wanted it. Some startup called Moviphone has announced a new one for 2027.[1] The use cases have not been compelling and fighting ambient lighting with a small projector is always tough.
Possible use case: projecting menus, ads, and bills on restaurant tables. With a camera and enough automated layout to work around what's on the table.
It might sell to the people who buy refrigerators with displays on the door. Could be useful as a cooking training aid, like cooking videos but present where you need them.
The light bulb form factor is cute but probably not that useful. Most of the light will be aimed in non-useful directions. Look into ultra short throw projectors.
It's a good thing that most inventors don't fall for the "something vaguely like this has been tried with inferior technology before, and it sucked" line of reasoning, or our world would look very different :)
Well, if you're a inventor, you look at the prior art to see if it's been done before. I hold six issued patents, two of which were very profitable. I had one patent rejected because I missed relevant prior art from 1948.
> The light bulb form factor is cute but probably not that useful. Most of the light will be aimed in non-useful directions. Look into ultra short throw projectors.
gonna hard disagree! you aren't going to have 360° projector in there with wasted light going nowhere. you're going to have 1-4 steerable projectors. the "facade" as a globe bulb means you can place it at any direction you like depending on where the cord needs to go. for ceiling as well you don't want it to have a fixed throw direction. bulb makes perfect sense.