Recognizing that it is not much fun to watch movies on a tiny cell phone, a number of companies are racing to develop gadgets that project what’s playing on the small screen onto walls, table cloths and other handy surfaces.

“Pico projectors” that are small enough to carry around in a shirt pocket are expected on the market later this year. Eventually, the technology will be tiny enough to be built into phones and portable media players, the companies say.

Microvision Inc., a small Redmond, Washington, company, was at the CTIA Wireless industry show this week to demonstrate a prototype of its projector. It’s about the size of two full-size iPods, but by the time it goes on sale later this year, it should be about 30 percent smaller, said Russell Hannigan, the company’s director of projector product management.

In a darkened room, the prototype beamed out surprisingly bright, crisp and large video from a connected iPod Nano: With the projector held 6 feet (1.83 meters) away from the wall, the image measured 6 feet (1.83 meters) diagonally and was as sharp as a DVD.

On the brightly lit showroom floor, the image was less impressive, but projected on a piece of paper held a foot away, it still made for a nice alternative to the iPod Nano’s screen, which is slightly larger than a stamp.

The technology differs substantially from standard projectors: Microvision’s unit shines red, green and blue lasers on a rapidly moving, 1-millimeter square mirror, which “paints” the picture line by line, so fast that it blends into one image.

Hannigan said it’s highly energy-efficient and allows the company to dispense with the fans and vents that standard projectors have. The goal for the first projector is a 2.5-hour battery life.

Microvision Chief Executive Alexander Tokman expects the projector to sell for $300 (EU193)…