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Matchbox-sized Laser Projector
soupisgoodfood writes "Light Blue Optics Ltd. have developed a laser-based projector called the PVPro. It's small enough to fit into a cellphone or PDA.
Some specs: Supports resolutions up to 2048x1280; No moving parts; Infinite focus; Green monochrome, with a colour version expected late 2006; Max consumption of 1.4W with an average of <350mW.
Looks a like a good solution to the increasing problem of smaller devices trying to display more information."
The Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems in Dresden, Germany actually had a similar Projector one year ago.
It works at 640x480 in Full Color (3*8 bit).
It's even smaller at the size of "2 sugar cubes".
See here for yourself
That's actually a 2p coin, it's about 2.5cm in diameter.
I am one of many. My idea is not unique, nor do I expect my voice alone to sway you. I speak in a chorus of opinion.
Mecury arc lamps have much _lower_ profit margins then other consumer electronic parts. So do projectors in general. The lamps have very exotic materials in them, like very very pure tungsten and specially manufactured quartz casings. You're not getting ripped off. The prices would come down some if more projectors were out there in people's living rooms, but not by much. If there were really a racket on mecury arc lamps, we could do something about it. Hopefully laser tech will eliminate the need for these expensive ( and very polluting, in manufacture and waste ) mecury arc lamps.
That won't work: There's no red light in the blue-violet laser. Indeed, the laser has just one exact wavelength, so a filter could not change its color (because the color change is done by absorbing different wavelengths). The "problem" is within our eyes, because our red-receptors don't just react to "red light" (longest visible waves), but also to "blue-violet light" (shortest visible waves). So unless you find a way to create "negative red" (i.e. a sort of light which suppresses the red receptors instead of activating them), there's no way to supress that "red".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Use this to project a fake doorway onto walls and watch your victims slam into walls, ala Bugs Bunny.
Bugs Bunny cartoons do not feature advanced technology whereas Roadrunner cartoons do. So what really would happen is that you would project a fake doorway onto the wall, your intended victim would walk up to the wall, open the door, walk through the doorway and close the door behind. Astounded, you'd run to the door only to slam into the brick wall, a la Wile E. Coyote.
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You didn't read the spec sheet. The brightness at 15" is 200 candela - aproximately the brightness of a LCD screen. The brightness at 7" - half the distance - is 880 candela. Now do a curvefit and tell me how bright it is going to be at a comfortable viewing distance - 120"++ for a home theater (~50 candela). (answer: not very.)