Overhead projector

An overhead projector is a variant of slide projector that is used to display images to an audience.

An overhead projector works on the same principle as a 35mm slide projector, in which a focusing lens projects light from an illuminated slide onto a projection screen where a real image is formed. However some differences are necessitated by the much larger size of the transparencies used (generally the size of a printed page), and the requirement that the transparency be placed face up (and readable to the presenter). For the latter purpose, the projector includes a mirror just before or after the focusing lens to fold the optical system toward the horizontal. That mirror also accomplishes a reversal of the image in order that the image projected onto the screen corresponds to that of the slide as seen by the presenter looking down at it, rather than a mirror image thereof. Therefore, the transparency is placed face up (toward the mirror and focusing lens), in contrast with a 35mm slide projector or film projector (which lack such a mirror) where the slide's image is non-reversed on the side opposite the focusing lens.

Because the focusing lens (typically less than 10 cm [4 in] in diameter) is much smaller than the transparency, a crucial role is played by the optical condenser which illuminates the transparency. Since this requires a large optical lens (at least the size of the transparency) but may be of poor optical quality (since the sharpness of the image does not depend on it), a Fresnel lens is employed. The Fresnel lens is located at (or is part of) the glass plate on which the transparency is placed, and serves to redirect most of the light hitting it into a converging cone toward the focusing lens. Without such a condenser at that point, most of the light would miss the focusing lens (or it would have to be very large and prohibitively expensive). Additionally, mirrors or other condensing elements below the Fresnel lens serve to increase the portion of the light bulb's output which reaches the Fresnel lens in the first place. In order to provide sufficient light on the screen, a high intensity bulb is used which must be fan cooled.

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