How-To: $5 Mobile Phone Projector

Photography & Video

I'm a word nerd who loves to geek out on how emerging technology affects the lexicon. I was an editor on the first 40 volumes of MAKE, and I love shining light on the incredible makers in our community. In particular, covering art is my passion — after all, art is the first thing most of us ever made. When not fawning over perfect word choices, I can be found on the nearest mountain, looking for untouched powder fields and ideal alpine lakes.

Contact me at snowgoli@gmail.com or via @snowgoli.

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January 31st, 2013May 20th, 2015 72

The folks at Photojojo just posted a neat low-tech tutorial on how to make a mobile phone projector using a shoebox, a paperclip, and a magnifying glass. MacGyver would be proud. They were able to find the magnifying glass at a dollar store for, well, a dollar (so they called it the $1 projector), but let’s just call it $5 before people get up in arms because they can’t find that screaming deal.

Basically, you start by cutting a hole out of one side of the shoebox to match your magnifying glass and taping the glass on the box. Then you make an iPhone holder from a paperclip, flip the screen display on your phone (to account for how images passed through a lens get flipped), position your phone inside the box (playing with placement until you get the clearest image), put the box top back on, turn the room lights down low and the brightness on your phone up high, and revel in your resourcefulness. Doesn’t get more accessible than that!