WowWee Cinemin – a range of micro projectors

By Damir Beciri

28 June 2009

How many times you wished you had your personal projector in order to create home cinema? Besides the price, a common problem is the size of devices and maintenance regarding bulb replacement. A robotic toy company announced they are going to enter the projector market with a variety of midrange priced projectors. The WowWee’s Cinemin suite of ultra-portable multimedia micro projectors, powered by Texas Instruments’ DLP Technology is taking projection out of boardrooms and movie theaters straight your homes or even your pockets.

Utilizing the same technology commonly found in high-definition TVs, classroom projectors and large-scale cinema houses, the Cinemin projectors have been designed to work with popular mobile devices, such as the Apple iPod and iPhone. The line features three products Cinemin Swivel, Cinemin Stick and Cinemin Station. The first two offer 10 ANSI Lumens while the Cinemin Station has better performance and offers 20 ANSI Lumens.

The Cinemin Swiwel pico projector is an affordable lightweight micro projector that is roughly the size of a candy bar and features an impressive 150 minutes battery life for movie watching, full volume control, and a unique adjustable 90-degree hinge for ceiling projection.

The Cinemin Stick pico projector is a compact micro projector with internal memory and an expandable SD card memory slot that puts your favorite web videos, digicam snapshots, ambient animations, and more on display.

The Cinemin Station pico projector is an alarm clock-sized convenient media center and iPod docking station for big pictures with big audio.

WowWee Cinemin projector comparison sheet:

Product		WowWee Cinemin Swivel	WowWee Cinemin Stick	WowWee Cinemin Station
General	Aspect Ratio	3:2	3:2	5:4
	Brightness (ANSI Lumens)	10 ANSI Lumens	10 ANSI Lumens	20 ANSI Lumens
	Contrast Ratio	1000:1
	Resolution (Native / Max)	480 x 320	480 x 320	800 x 480
Size	Dimensions (WxHxD)	6.86cm x 3.05cm x 7.87cm	6.86cm x 3.05cm x 7.87cm	10.67cm x 10.67cm x 14.48cm)
Size	Weight	0.3 lbs. (0.14 kg)	0.3 lbs. (0.14 kg)
Connectivity	Inputs	1 x AV Jack 1 x USB	1 x SDD Card Slot 1 x USB 1 x Composite 1 x 3.5mm Microphone Jack	1 x iPod Docking Station 1 x SDD Card Slot 1 x Microphone Jack 1 x AV Jack
	Outputs	1 x Headphone Jack
	Audio	1 x 0.5W Mono Speaker
Other	Features	Mid-Body Hinge for Multi-angle Viewing Battery Life: 150 min	3 Hour Battery Life 4 GB Internal Memory Power Save Mode Sleep mode Plays MP3s Slideshow	Internal Memory: 16 GB Plays MP3s Plays Movies Native Format Preload Content

All models use LED lamps whose life expectancy is 20,000 hours. Their projection distance is from 0.12m to 2.07m and they are able to project screen size of 15.24cm to 152.4cm in diagonal.

Besides the home usage we believe these and similar products will be used by modern artists who could use them as an additional multimedia in their street performances. WowWee claims all three projectors will be available by the end of this year and we can’t wait to have a chance to compare them with their competition.