October 2003 — Product Watch
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Digital Imaging: The Wave of the Future
Currently, most of the projectors used at the academic level capture the video as analog output as it g'es to the monitor at a resolution of 800 x 600, while a more expensive projector can capture and display the video digitally so no conversion to analog is required. This conversion ability is likely to move into the less expensive units over time. The more expensive units can also handle the higher 1,024 x 768 resolution, which is also likely to move into the less expensive units over time. (See sidebar on Page 49 for the trade-offs between SVGA and XGA projectors.)
One drawback to the widespread adoption of projectors in the classroom is their increased theft. While the FBI d'es not track crime statistics on these projectors, officials in education and executives in the industry have no doubts that theft rates have exploded. Just while this article was being written, Southern Polytechnic State University in Georgia, where I teach, had three projectors stolen. Officials on many other campuses tell similar stories.
According to executives at InFocus, the most common reason for the theft of projectors in the academic environment, especially in K-12, is the desire of students to connect them to their Xboxes so they can play games on a larger display. The shrinking size of the projectors is no doubt a major contributor to the problem, with current models weighing just a couple of pounds and being small enough to conceal in a backpack.
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