Fujifilm's rotating lens projector adjusts to your viewing space

September 25, 2018

If you need to adjust your projector to get a better picture or beam to a different part of the room, you don't have many choices -- you might only have slight adjustments to the lens itself, and might have to move the entire projector in some cases. And that's assuming you can move it at all. Fujifilm will soon have a solution, though, as it's developing the first projector with a two-axis rotatable lens. The design lets you not only fine-tune the placement, but dramatically change the direction without having to move the whole unit. You could project on the living room wall for movie night and switch to the ceiling when you're resting on the couch, or stuff a projector into a narrow space while maintaining a horizontal aspect ratio.

That's not the only party trick, either. The laser projector carries an ultra-short throw lens that casts a 100-inch picture from as close as 29.5 inches away. The rotating lens can also tuck inward to save space and protect the glass when you're done.

Fujifilm won't ship the projector until sometime in 2019, and it doesn't even have a name for the device. When it does arrive, though, it could inject some much-needed life into a category where radical design changes are few and far between.