Elmo iP-60E Intelligent Projector

The XGA-resolution Elmo iP-60E Intelligent Projector is downright strange. Strangely powerful, that is. It can do things you might have never have thought a projector could do. We'll get to that in a minute. First let's go over the basics.

It's got 3500 ANSI lumens of projection power, a 100 to 240 volt 50/60 Hz power supply and it can project images in the NTSC, PAL and SECAM video standards. Its onscreen display (OSD) offers your choice of English, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Spanish.

You can change horizontal keystone by plus or minus 10 percent and vertical keystone by plus or minus 15 percent.

It makes beautiful images thanks to its big (one inch) 3LCD imaging panels. 3LCD technology delivers sharper and brighter images with superior grayscale detail. Smooth, seamless color combined with an unparalleled grayscale range delivers incredible detail to every image displayed by the iP-60E. Grayscale is the shades of gray (from black to white) required for greater image depth and detail; it allows greater variation in shadows and brings superior accuracy to color, creating crisp and vivid images.

Now about those strange powers. Have you ever heard of a projector with a built in 4.13 megapixel camera/scanner? You have now. You can put documents and objects on the iP-60E's glass surface and project the resulting image. It feels sort of like a cross between using a copier (there's a lid you can attach) and an overhead projector. In fact Elmo calls it Overhead Projection (OHP) Mode.

But it gets better. Built right into the iP60-E is a program called iP Viewer. Connect up to a PC with RGB and USB cables and you can do all sorts of useful tricks. One thing you don't have to do is install the software. Just make the USB connection and iP Viewer starts automatically. You can enlarge, reduce and change images between portrait and landscape mode. If changing the orientation causes part of the image to be cut off you can easily scroll to the hidden portion. If you hook up an electronic tablet (not included) to your PC you can highlight and annotate your projected images.

But wait! There's more! You can store up to 32 images in the projector's memory, view them as thumbnails 16 at a time and if you've made that PC connection you can copy them to the PC where you can burn them to a CD, print them out, email them or whatever else you might need to do.

Use your strangely powerful iP-60E with care, though. Once you get used to all that it can do to make you more productive and a superior communicator, going back to a "normal" projector may be just a little disappointing.