A Video Projector That Fits In Your Pocket

Sven-Erik writes "Video projectors able to project high-quality images will be embedded in your cellphones and laptops within two years. This is the promise of a new technology developed at Cambridge University. These pocket projectors will have no lenses and no light bulbs. Instead, these future battery-powered tiny projectors will rely on holographic technology and special algorithms. In 'Holograms enable pocket projectors,' Technology Research News explains that a 2D hologram will be created on a microdisplay and projected by using a laser beam. This has been possible because the researchers have written special algorithms which generates the holograms a million times faster than standard ones." Update: 07/03 21:21 GMT by T : Note that this text belongs to Roland Piquepaille and comes from his weblog; submitters, please strive to make your sources clear.

Comments

Hmm

[Anonymous Coward]

On a side note, inexpensive home projection theaters kick ass. Cost is about $400 for everything besides the projector. I don't know why anyone with a week of time would buy a plasma TV.

Re:Hmm

[HeelToe]

Yes, there are clearly tradeoffs. I took the projector approach and I couldn't be happier. Not quite movie-theater angular size, but closer than anything short of a movie theater. For 1/3 the price of a plasma 3/4 the size of the screen.

It will be interesting to see how the new prototype Sony technology (the black screen thing) works out. It would be amazing to have a high quality projected image without needing great control of the ambient light.

There are also people doing reverse projection setups using front projectors. These also reduce the need for ambient light control.

New killer teleconference app?

[VinceWuzHere]

What an addition this would be to remote meetings, instructing, etc. Just set your cellphone on the table and have a live demo in front of your eyes. Of course someone will likely use it for pr0n before any other "real" uses...

Well..

[arieswind]

I dont see how putting projectors in phones will make them any more useful than they are, they will only make it more expensive.

The Laptop projectors on the other hand, if they are built in, would eliminate the need for bulky projectors when a worker needs to give a presentation to his boss or co workers.. they could even make mini tv's use this technology, and project onto any free space of wall.

Re:Watch for Apple

[euxneks]

Apple will make this a standard component first, in the same way as they picked up on other trends and mainstreamed them, e.g. window-based UI, 17" screen, PDA.

Kinda strange though, that when I think of those three items I don't think of Apple....

Re:won't the small size also affect image quality?

[RickHunter]

Actually, the cost is likely to be quite a lot lower than anything involving optics. Making lenses is hard work. Making lasers is easy. And from what they say in the article, I gather that the hardware for the image production bit is pretty easy to make too. What's complicated are the algorithms they use in the background.

Students

[mboverload]

This will be great for students and teachers. In my school teachers are always fussing over the projectors and when they get to use them. Because of this, many have given up on using them. With these new pocket proijectors teachers can take them home and use them where ever and when ever.

I welcome our new pocket-sized projector overloards.

What's the light source?

[Animats]

What makes this so great? They still have to have a light source and enough power to drive it.

The actual imaging component of a projector isn't that big. Look at the TI DLP chip. Their projectors are already down to 2.2 pounds.

Color is a problem. Currently, you need either a color wheel for field-sequential color or three imaging chips, which looks better. This new "holographic" display has the same problem. Note that their demo image is greyscale.

What's really needed are powerful LED arrays as the light source. If you could change the light source color at a few KHz, which LEDs can easily do, a one-chip DLP projector without a color wheel would work. With an LED light source, you could do some other obvious power-saving tricks, too. You need no more light output than the brightest pixel in that color in that frame. With sectional lighting, maybe less.

LEDs with enough light output for this are not far off. LEDs have taken over automotive taillights, and white LED automotive headlamps are expected in 2006. Toyota showed a car with LED headlamps in 2003.

That direction is more likely to result in smaller projectors than this "holographic" thing.

Cool, but potential for weird/annoying uses.

[stoneymonster]

I can imagine these things pointed at movie screens by bored teens. Or spot advertisements aimed at all sorts of surfaces-- building walls, bald peoples heads. How long before someone aims a multi-megawatt laser projector at the moon to sell us coke c2?

This micro projector saves laptops.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rather than attach a sixteen-ounce LCD panel to a laptop, you can as-well attach an unfolding cotton-clothe dome and project the image on its surface.

Low power, lighter, and when you need to wash the "screen" you just throw it in the laundry and thereafter dry and remove the lint.

And those of us that like to browse slashdot with *ahhem* one hand on their joystick and one hand on their *uhm* mouse, you won't regreat losing controll onto your monitor.

I dont't know Sven-Erik, but he didn't wrote this

[rpiquepa]

Check this page ( http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/2004/07/03.html ) or this RSS feed ( http://radio.weblogs.com/0105910/rss.xml ) to see what plagiarism is -- the exact words on my RSS feed. You also can check hours of publication. I'm not happy with this. Last month, someone opened a Slashdot account with my name. Now, "Sven-Erik" is publishing my own words, already submitted to Slashdot, and he's credited for this. Slashdot editors, please be careful! And "Sven-Erik," please indicate your sources!!!

just the next step

[cybergrunt69]

This looks like it's going to be a great new product. While I'll probably never have a cell phone with one of these built into it, I can see it as the next logical step to be included in the standard PDA and notebook. For all we know now, that little laser pointer will have one too... So I wonder what it would take to get one of these items just by itself so I can hook it up as a monitor for my computers? Will it take the place of my clunky heavy TV, too? I'm very interested to see where this is going!

Am I missing something ?

[sane?]

Maybe I'm missing something, but surely you would store the holographic image data (eg the thing that drives the 2D microdisplay), rather than attempting to convert on the fly.

Therefore what you need, past the circuitry, is a good compression algorithm for the holographic data. This is unlikely to follow the precepts of the JPEG/MPEG compression (more oppotunity for patents methinks). Together with the display technology you then have a viable system.

Interesting technology, maybe, but not a complete solution yet.

? 2-D hologram ?

[James Turpin]

What is a 2-D hologram?? I thought holograms were inherently 3-D, although they may sometimes be images of impossible objects.

Are these really holograms...

[cr0sh]

...or is it a reconfigurable diffraction grating?

Or maybe - are diffraction gratings a form of a hologram?

What I am trying to get at, is that they appear to have used a microdisplay to generate a diffraction grating pattern that generates the resultant image - similar to how the el-cheapo laser pointer keychain devices use small diffraction gratings to "project" words and drawings on walls.

Is there more to this? Am I missing something? Whatever the case, it looks like very interesting and promising technology...