Slashdot Mirror
A Projection Display For Your Pocket
lub writes "The German Fraunhofer-Instituts für Siliziumtechnologie is developing a pocket beamer. It uses a laser beam and a rotating mirror to display the image. Another laser and a photo diode is used to verify whether the displayed image is shown correctly, so the electronics can adjust the image when the beamer moves. No colors yet; 320x240 in nice shades of red is what they have now, but higher resolutions and color might be implemented later. I want this in my BlackBerry!"
Finally a Nintendo Virtual Boy that I can share and experience with my friends!
Is that a beamer in your pocket......
oh yeah and firsties.
Loosely translated in English (I don't soeak German, but my dog does).
Beamer for the vest pocket
A projector in the pocket size is in range: In it a mobile micro mirror develops the picture line for line. In laboratory prototypes researchers could increase its frequency of oscillation and dissolution so far that diagrams and texts appear clearly readable.
Not much more largely than a piece wuerfelzucker could be the Beamer of the future. Built into Handys would always participate the mini projector - approximately for a PowerPoint presentation in the small circle or the fast view into an on-line journal. In strange cities it could facilitate orientation, by projecting simply a city plan to the next house wall. Still is this future music. Researchers of the institute for Fraunhofer for silicon technology ISIT in Itzehoe however already built a demonstrator for such a tiny equipment. It projects texts and diagrams with a dissolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Heart is a mobile mirror with a diameter of 1,5 millimeters, which can be manufactured as mass product on a chip. It directs a laser beam by speedy changing of its tilting angle, and develops so the picture pixel for pixels.
"the special at the mirror is its suspension", stresses Ulrich Hofmann. "by a special attachment at two torsion bars the mirror can be tilted around two axles. Thus it can divert a laser beam horizontal and vertically." After each deflection the feathers/springs withdraw the mirror so fast into its initial position that it can be tilted several thousands times per second. Suitably the high mobility the researchers accelerated electronics. It decides within the range of nanoseconds, how it must modulate the laser light, so that each pixel in the correct brightness appears. In order to avoid errors in the projection, a second laser serves as control. It radiates likewise on the mobile mirror; the reflected light meets however a photodiode, which locates, as the mirror tilted. "the mirror changes its position for example by vibrations inadvertently, notices control this", explains Hofmann. "electronics can react then flexibly to it and adapt the picture information accordingly." The system is thereby to a large extent insensitively in relation to disturbances from the outside.
Still the demonstrator fits into no mobile telephone. "for the test we had not made, say electronics smaller yet to a minimum" Hofmann. That is however one of the next goals of the researchers, who in addition the frequency of the mirror movement and so the dissolution would like to increase. Also in other place it hooks still: As tiny source of light with sufficient life span and leuchtstaerke there are so far only red laser diodes. Within this range the researchers wait now for developments of their colleagues. They however already prepared their system for the multi-color enterprise.
Repant. Thy end is sheer.
Anyone else wondering how they got on and the white sheet of paper with a red laser in the image of this device in TFA? :)
That picture is obviously a photoshop job. Anyone got a real picture?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Is that a pocket beamer in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
FoundNews.com - get paid to blog.,
Is that a projector in your pocket, or did I just wake up in a Star Wars movie?
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Maybe if instead of the lcd screen they just put a projection screen and the image was somehow projected onto that. Otherwise, I don't see how that could be very convenient in a portable device.
Anything would be better than watching the stupid slideshow before movies. All the boring awful ads and quote from Cher and Queen Latifah....
I was thinking, hey, bring in my own little projector.
Jesus, am I talking right now?
You can add this to the truncated laptop while you are at it:
3 94
http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_story.asp?ID=6
http://nyamenation.org/
Of course, then every laptop would have to come with a little fold-out projection screen because there won't always be flat surface available when traveling.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
This device should be surpressed for the good of all humanity. Think of the children!
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Who's going to want to watch a display in my pocket?
http://mirrordot.org/stories/eb57b2ee6820e0666d616 ccb92825fc0/index.html
And already /.'ed
Despite conventional wisdom, I've discovered you can blame a guy for trying. It's called "attempted murder".
Colour projection is obviously going to rely on having either 3 base colour lasers (red, green, blue) or having a full-spectrum white.
In the world of lasers, Red is the cheapest right now with Green a close second.
However, when you get to Blue lasers, the price is significantly higher and then White lasers require you to sell your granny to afford them.
I'd like to be wrong but a system like this will probably stay monochrome for a while yet.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
At technology review they have an article about a similar device.m o1204.asp?p=1
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/04/12/de
By then they'll have invented SkitzoidVision that lets us see and talk to people and things that aren't really there at all. (You've probably seen a number of time-travellers from the future equipped with this, riding on the bus or asking for non-anachronistic currency.)
Here is the story (in german) and here is the image only (obvious mockup)
Move Sig. For great justice.
Just the other day I was looking up battery powered projectors, and found another company that is working on a small battery powered projector.
I'm imagining a PC that actually stays in your pocket, the projector on your belt with a (as yet magical) elastic display that pops up, and a collapsible keyboard that roles into the buckle like a tape measure.
Or how about a translation serice that doesnt rely on the currently /.'ed server:
Google's translation of the MirrorDot mirror
How long until they claim that overhead projectors violate their patent on "arbitrary static image projection"?
I dunno, the tilty mirror thingy is eye-catching and the little laser's cute an' all but it's gonna take more than that to make my pocket project!
:)
(Throw in a booth babe or two though and maybe we can work something out...
Please mod this overbaked comment down. I was blinded by the possibilities of projected pocket porn...
Just gimme that white laser!
I want this in my BlackBerry!
I don't want this in your Blackberry, or anything else either.
I own a movie theatre and kids and teenagers with those damn laser pointers are enough of a distraction and cause for customer complaints already, thank you very much.
If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
If they can manufacture this cheap, then it will revolutionize laser lightshows. Effectively, this is a closed-loop scanning galvanometer capable of 30K+ speeds -- and current scanners with similar capabilities cost thousands of dollars per axis. They're a lot bigger too.
If you replace the dinky red diode with a few hundred milliwatts of green, then guess what? Laser show in your pocket, at a price that any would-be laserist can afford. Not to mention all the applications in laser marking: the flexure arrangement means that the Fraunhofer galvo can achieve much longer lifetimes than standard ball-bearing arrangments. When you're scanning thousands of times per second, 24 hours a day... that's a good thing.
This
Yeah, I was going to say that ditching the laptop lcd in favor of this is not a good idea. I am a student and take notes in class on my laptop. I have no flat surface in front of me, so I would have no display!! However, some sort of blank screen attachment would be cool. That way, you could convert the laptop to a movie projector or anything...
- Phil
Just to make that clear: the second laser and photo diode is used to verify the position of the mirror.
Not to verify the projected image. That's what I understood when I read the summary first.
That would be a good idea: a control system (CCD or something) verifies the projected image, such that even on non-flat or not uniformly bright projection surfaces the image appears correct to the viewers.
However I don't understand German.
But Babelfish does (kind of):
A projector in the pocket size is in range: In it a mobile micro mirror develops the picture line for line. In laboratory prototypes researchers could increase its frequency of oscillation and dissolution so far that diagrams and texts appear clearly readable. Not much more largely than a piece wuerfelzucker could be the Beamer of the future. Built into Handys would always participate the mini projector - approximately for a PowerPoint presentation in the small circle or the fast view into an on-line journal. In strange cities it could facilitate orientation, by projecting simply a city plan to the next house wall. Still is this future music. Researchers of the institute for Fraunhofer for silicon technology ISIT in Itzehoe however already built a demonstrator for such a tiny equipment. It projects texts and diagrams with a dissolution of 320 x 240 pixels. Heart is a mobile mirror with a diameter of 1,5 millimeters, which can be manufactured as mass product on a chip. It directs a laser beam by speedy changing of its tilting angle, and develops so the picture pixel for pixels. "the special at the mirror is its suspension", stresses Ulrich Hofmann. "by a special attachment at two torsion bars the mirror can be tilted around two axles. Thus it can divert a laser beam horizontal and vertically." After each deflection the feathers/springs withdraw the mirror so fast into its initial position that it can be tilted several thousands times per second. Suitably the high mobility the researchers accelerated electronics. It decides within the range of nanoseconds, how it must modulate the laser light, so that each pixel in the correct brightness appears. In order to avoid errors in the projection, a second laser serves as control. It radiates likewise on the mobile mirror; the reflected light meets however a photodiode, which locates, as the mirror tilted. "the mirror changes its position for example by vibrations inadvertently, notices control this", explains Hofmann. "electronics can react then flexibly to it and adapt the picture information accordingly." The system is thereby to a large extent insensitively in relation to disturbances from the outside. Still the demonstrator fits into no mobile telephone. "for the test we had not made, say electronics smaller yet to a minimum" Hofmann. That is however one of the next goals of the researchers, who in addition the frequency of the mirror movement and so the dissolution would like to increase. Also in other place it hooks still: As tiny source of light with sufficient life span and leuchtstaerke there are so far only red laser diodes. Within this range the researchers wait now for developments of their colleagues. They however already prepared their system for the multi-color enterprise.
I mean, maybe it's signifigantly larger, but I want one of these: http://www.io2technology.com/dojo/178/v.jsp
The difference being partially that the heliodisplay works, now, and is much more Star War-sy
The two most important constraints on the size of portable devices these days (that I see), are the amount of information they are able to display, and the input method. This removes the display size issue, you can have a large display size in something really small. cool
"brxref
Does anyone remember that Sean Connery movie "Zardoz", where he is poking around someone's house and finds a green emerald ring, which when he activates it begins speaking and projects a computer display on the wall in front of him. I thought that was pretty cool.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
When I said full-spectrum white, I was hoping everyone (who knows lasers) would know the method.
White lasers either provide a cyclic frequency or are Red Green and Blue combined.
This is generally the reason for the astronomical prices of 'white' lasers.
The reason that they're referred to as 'white' is that on full gain/balance they appear white to the human eye (r,g,b at balanced levels)
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
This reminds me of the matchbox-sized pojector the finnish company Upstream expects to put on market soon, with a first model commercially avaible in 2005.
Washington Times have a story on it too.
from pocket protectors to pocket projectors.
Perhaps you could combine it with one of those transparent panels they use for autocues. From the front you see the projected image. From the back you see right through it.
...what is the 'projected' cost of this? I mean my german is horrible, maybe someone else can just tell me?
I can't think of a better technology for for a monitor - or a TV. I can envision large projection TVs about the size, and weight, of a baseball. I'd love to hear details about the mirror; I expect there's an interesting combination of hardware and software in that gadget.
I've been chewing on this idea for more than a year, and I keep coming back to the difficulty of the pixel management, the shape of the mirror, the screen, and of course the generation of color. Yet I can clearly visualize opening up my laptop, positioning the projector, and never having to worry about a broken pixel again. So I'm cheering them on with this effort; I hope they apply it broadly. I want a tiny big-screen TV, and a 3 lb laptop with a 22 inch screen.
in this case a laser. Kinda sounds like a mechanical Television
It's a monochrome laser projector with a scanning mirror. There is one of these in every laser printer. Except this one scans two dimensions. Then again, its 320x200 instead of 5100 pixel line scanned by a 600dpi letter-size printer. So its not a big deal. Besides, wasn't there, back in 1998 or so, some 3D stereo display for some game console that used a red scanning laser? I think I've seen one in K-mart. I suppose, noone wanted a monochrome display then, and noone will want one now.
So the interesting thing about this gadget is not the amazing fact that someone made a laser projector, because there really is nothing amazing about it. The interesting thing is whether these guys would ever get 3 lasers (especially the blue one) cheap enough, while powerfull enough to scan a highres picture, as large as an LCD projector does, onto a wall. They'd need 3 powerfull lasers. As light sources go, lasers are about the least efficient, so the gizmo would drain a lot of power, and it will have to be large, with the heatsinks, fans, an all. So, the gadget would really end up being at least as large as an LCD projector, and some 10 times more expensive, mostly because of the blue laser. Why bother?
Is this really new technology? The Canesta keyboard already projects an image of a keyboard on any surface. This seems to be the same thing, except the Canesta keyboard exists in reality, and this site has a (well looks like anyway) photoshoped image. It could of course differ in resolution, etc.
Typing would be horrible. Good maybe for objects and CADD stuff
If they replace the fragile LCD screnns of laptops with tiny solid state projectors, they will be more rugged and maybe cheaper in the long run. One step further in the way to the disposable laptop that you can carry everywhere without worring about it being lost, broken, stolen.
Hey, maybe you wont even need a Best Buy extended warranty after all. How's that.
Nach jeder Auslenkung ziehen die Federn den Spiegel so schnell in seine Ausgangslage zurück, dass er sich mehrere tausend Mal pro Sekunde verkippen lässt.
It's been many years since I studied German, but that reads to me: the mirror moves "more than a thousand times per second". Translation: this thing vibrates at approximately 1 KHz. That's probably not only audible, but it probably would cause a noticable vibration in your hand, too.
I realize the vibration's amplitude is probably minor, but I can hear the buzz from a TV from 30 feet away... and I've known several other people who could do the same, so I'm not unique in that regard. The whir of my PC's fan and disk drives can be terribly annoying.
So, I think it's a great accomplishment, but I'd hold off buying one until the buzz dies down. ;^)
I remember looking at their website nearly a year ago. Why don't I see this tech at tradeshows and such? Hell, why don't I see it at my local science center...it looks so damn cool.
Can't wait til my old Deputy Head gets one of these. This is the teacher colloquially known as "Powerpoint Steve"... The Earth is doomed :(
For the love of God, please learn to spell "ridiculous"!!!
Except the Canesta projects a static image using the same type of holographic filters that come with the $2 laser pointer you can buy from your local ice cream truck. It is essentially a laser slide-show. Projecting a dynamic image is much, much harder.
I'm with you! Is there room in R2D2 firewall for the projector?
Think global, act loco
French Canadian Bean Soup.
Well, doesnt seem like this obsoletes the portable projector, as this is not portable. However, it does seem pretty cool, and found the patent applications for it #20040001182 you can look it up on uspto.gov
Naw. Direct neural links will be what replaces laptops. Everything else is just a fad. ;)
:)
I can see this feature being an add-on to a laptop but not replacing the normal laptop screen. It's more likely to create a new market that kills the slow tablet PC market. This would be a possible improvement to the technology that lets devices like cellphones project a virtual keyboard. It could project a virtual touchscreen too and be really small.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Ok, that's not fair though. I happen to have seen it demoed live and tried by a friend of mine. Of course it does not work as good as they claim it to do (you can basically only do hunt and peck typing, not touch-typing), but still, it does exist.
His reference to "frigging laser beams" was intended to be a humourous reference to a rant the villian utters in the film Austin Powers: International man of mystery.
It's not a laser, it's a Dark Sucker, although a very well collimated and controlled one.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
While porn is usually brought up as what drives the acceptance of new technology, games have to be a close second.
:-)
Aside from the issues of selling even low power lasers to kids (i.e., cheap laser pointers warning that they are not toys and shouldn't be sold to kids), wouldn't it be easy to use a cheap red laser diode to make a "game console" that would let you play Asteroids, Battle Zone, or Missle Command type games on your wall (or on the side of your house 20' high)?
Or, as others have joked about, just a simple scrolling message display like those spin around your head segmented LED displays so you can "tag" messages in public places?
You might have a hard time getting them carried at your local Radio Shack or Best Buy, but what do you bet that you can order them from international online stores soon?
Did I just blow my chances at a multi-million dollar patent again?
-- stream of did I lock the front door consciousness