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Central air can be silent.

No, it can't. You have to move the air, which causes noise.

Air conditioning can be darn close to silent. Most U.S. air conditioning consists of cold air being pumped in large quantities through ducts. That's noisy. Get rid of the ducts and AC can be remarkably quiet.

...our indoor units operate with sound levels starting as low as 19dB(A). That sound is even quieter than a human whisper.

See: http://www.mitsubishielectric.com/bu/air/network/americas.html

This thing is larger than tricorder in original Star Treck series! Also why put touchscreen on this device when better alternatives, like Wearable Display available?

I think the true potential of this is not projecting onto surfaces, but the possibility of projection directly into the eye.

I've been waiting for the VRD (Virtual Retinal Display) for 10 years. I first heard about it on Tomorrow World (UK Science Program) and it has been in development by MVIS (http://www.mvis.com/) ever since. Sadly in all this time, all they seem to have developed is a red monochrome display for car mechanics.

Apart from being a lot more private, projecting directly into the eye cuts down on the power requirements (since the projection area is so small).

The potential uses for direct eye projection are huge. From flip up projectors on mobiles to augmented reality and full immersion Virtual Reality displays.

A number of manufacturers are already moving into the consumer head mounted display market. e.g. check out the Scopo by Mitsubishi. http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/company/r_and _d/innovations/inn_02.html

Whoever can make a low cost full colour HMD is going to make a killing.

All pocket computers suffer from the screen size issue. The Scopo or something like it, could solve that problem. The headset may look stupid now, but back in '97, I used to think people using mobile phones looked stupid.

In July, Mitsubishi's PocketProjector will hit the market with an MSRP of $699. It sits in the palm of your hand and is driven by one each of Red, Green and Blue super-bright Luxeon LEDs manufactured by Lumileds. There was a bit on slashdot about it last month, I believe. I mention the light source only because replacing lamps in a projector is usually the most frequent maintenance cost. LEDs don't burn out as quickly as conventional lamps do; they're rating these at 20,000 hours and I'd be willing to bet that they'd work for even longer. (At an average 5 hours per day it should last for 10 years, they say)

can be viewed here, since the site linked to by the article appears to be /.'ed.

LumiLeds makes the LEDs: red, green, and blue. The bulb life of 20,000 hours is fantastic, but I agree that chances are poor this will throw a bright enough image to be useful in daylight or bright room situations. The Lumileds site suggests that the maximum brightness for a Lumileds Luxeon LED is 120 lumens.

-Joe G.

That would be nice. When the product mentioned in Mitsubishi's press release starts actually shipping (at the projected price), sub-$500 dreams will no longer seem premature. For now, the air is heady with vapours.

This isn't dead... yet.

Super-Small Video Projector Launched By Mitsubishi

For $699, you get a LED (dim) LCD (crappy image) projector.

RTFA:

"It is lighted by three Lumileds(TM) LEDs (red, green, blue) that produce an SVGA (800 x 600 pixels) image formed digitally by the latest DLP(TM) chip by Texas Instruments."

Mitsubishi Electric - Mitsubishi's press release on the PocketProjector. Put in the PCI card for a radio station and you got your own drive in movie :-P.

Offical Press Release, without pictures
2nd article with 1 picture

From what i gather, this is inductive power transmission and limited by distance.
Well, theres another kind: microwave transmission, which is also a demonstrated technology. Theorethically, we could beam power to any distance with it
At one point, Mitshubishi was planning on deployment of sattellite system that would have beamed microwave power to portable devices. SolarBird . They still list a launch date of 2005 but ...
Heres a Space Solar Power Monitor, a site that keeps tabs on whats happening on WPT front.
Btw, here's a Wikipedia page on microwave tranmission

DiamondVision installations

More specifically, I'd consider installing a ductless split air conditioning system. Mitsubishi makes many different types of them. As the name would imply, they don't need ducts and can simply hang on the wall or from the ceiling.

If the ceiling is too high, you could install a duct in front of it to force the air downwards. Only downfall is that this is an actual air conditioning system, which means you will need to have the condenser fan installed outside, as well as the reefer lines to said condenser.

They aren't cheap, but are also not that expensive. You could probably get one installed for under $2000. Depending how far away the condenser would be, mind you.

Beamed power is the way to go. Why just beam data, if you can beam power as well?

There certainly are a lot of games companies here in Guildford, but there's also a fair bit of tech research and other IT work going on.

The Surrey Research Park, near the Royal Surrey County Hospital and associated with Surrey University has plenty of tech-based companies including Red Hat UK (where I work), Mitsubishi Electric Visual Information Laboratory, the aforementioned Lionhead Studios, BOC, etc etc etc.

Also, the University itself has a rather good reputation in technology and the sciences, and has just opened a big new Biology and Nursing block, so there's plenty going down in this here town...