If you spend a lot of time on the road showing your work to clients or students, you've no doubt had to travel with a clunky digital projector. While the quality of projectors from companies such as Epson, Canon, Sanyo and others may be great for showing off your images, they're not really portable. (If you've ever tried to squeeze a digital projector into an overhead airline bin next to your photo backpack you know what we mean.)

The rise of micro projectors is upon us. While they're not perfect yet, they're better than you'd expect. The latest "pico" projector is the MPro110, from 3M, of all companies. It weighs less than a pound and is small enough to fit in your hand. Best of all, this isn't some futuristic prototype of a mini projector. It's real and it's shipping.

Hook the MPro110 to a video-capable pass-through device such as a laptop or an MP3 player and you can project up to a 50-inch still or video image with VGA resolution, minus the usual speckling and pixilation you get from cheaper models. (You can also connect MPro110 to an iPhone to present photo slideshows or video.)

Though the MPro110 doesn't project the brightest image in the world and does not have a built-in speaker, this pocket beamer does a surprisingly decent job, thanks to better-than-average optics. The MPro110 uses an advanced liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) imager alongside proprietary 3M optics technology, while an LED light source removes the need for a noisy fan and makes replacement bulbs a thing of the past.

Cost: $359 Further information: www.3M.com