By Michael Cohn<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

Texas Instruments introduced two chips Monday that promise to turn cell phones into digital projectors and make the cost of adding GPS tracking for emergency 911 calls a lot less expensive.

Dallas-based TI unveiled a prototype of its DLP pico-projector, which can project presentations and videos from a mobile phone onto a wall. The image that’s produced is about the size of a sheet of paper, depending on lighting conditions. TI plans to show the technology at the CTIA Wireless trade show in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Orlando, Florida, starting Monday.

Mobile video is taking off as more phone companies such as Verizon Wireless with its V CAST service and Sprint Nextel with Sprint TV offer video clips such as news reports. Phone makers such as LG Electronics are already building digital camcorders into phones. Private companies like MobiTV are also in the business.

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TI’s pico-projector will let cell phone users store presentations on their phones and project them on the wall so they don’t need to carry around heavy portable projectors when they’re on the road making sales and marketing calls.

The pico-projector will also let young filmmakers show a sample of their work to producers when making pitches. For consumers, the chips will let parents send videos to each other and to family members, who can then show a roomful of spectators footage of, say, their children’s first steps.

The chips can be built into a phone or into an accessory device that hooks onto the phone or one that runs as a separate mobile device.

“[These chips] really change the whole game,” said Frank Moizio, TI’s worldwide strategic marketing manager. “Usually it’s a one-to-one viewing experience with a mobile phone, but now it becomes one to many.”

However, he doesn’t think the technology will show up in actual cell phones for about two years.

Finding Emergency Callers Quickly

TI’s other chip introduction, the NaviLink 5.0, upgrades the company’s location-based chip technology to make it smaller and cheaper. The U.S. government has mandated emergency 911 service so cell phone callers can be quickly located when they dial a 911 operator.

Cell phone makers and service providers have been slow to implement the technology and have repeatedly asked the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to extend the deadline. So TI hopes its latest NaviLink chips will make GPS (global positioning system) more widespread in cell phones, potentially saving lives.

“[The NaviLink chips] provide a fast [look into] the first location indication,” said Mike Yonker, head of wireless strategy at TI. He also sees possibilities for deploying 3D mapping and social networking features in cell phones so friends and potential dates can quickly find each other.

Yonker acknowledged there are privacy issues involved in GPS location of phone users, but contended that “phone manufacturers and mobile operators have done a lot of work to ensure that the person is in control of how that information is used and when.”

Phones using the NaviLink 5.0 chips are expected to hit the market next year. Despite the announcements, shares of Texas Instruments fell $0.51 to $30.85 in recent trading.