A Widescreen Laser Projector In Your Pocket

Edis Krad writes "Redmond based company Microvision is in the last stages of developing and releasing a portable, laser-based projector, code-named 'Show WX.' The projector has a resolution of 848 by 400 pixels (WVGA) and, since it uses laser-scanning rather than LCD to form the images, it does not require a lens to focus, allowing it to display images virtually in any surface. The device comes with its own user-replaceable battery, which means you could take it with you anywhere you want. Although there is no pricing information on their website, according to this local news video, it could cost at least $200."

Comments

Can It Function as a Back-Lit Rear Projector?

[eldavojohn]

And project an image of my ass onto a car window as I pass someone?

Because you're sitting on a goldmine if it can.

What? It can't? *sigh* Oh well. A man can dream, can't he? A man can dream ...

Re:Can It Function as a Back-Lit Rear Projector?

[alexhard]

Why on earth don't they this on their website

Because they accidentally the whole thing.

Price is expected to be

[al0ha]

$400 to $500 USD according to the manufacturer site; not $200. Dang, $200 would have been awesome.

Re:Price is expected to be

[madfgurtbn]

Dang, $200 would have been awesome.

It should get there, in a couple years. The reason it will be so expensive to start with is two new technologies in one: Scanning MEMS mirror which projects the image, and the green lasers inside, which have not been produced before.

Microvision has been waiting for green laser supplier for a long time. Corning has built a facility and is ramping up production of green lasers now.

When green lasers are available in quantities of millions, the laser projectors will be built into blackberries, iphones, digital cameras, etc.

Re:Price is expected to be

[madfgurtbn]

Its why I have been looking at the LED based ones, but they are just not bright enough for my purposes.

LED-based on the left, laser projection on the right: http://www.picoprojector-info.com/files/picoprojector/images/DSC_0016.preview.jpg

Re:Price is expected to be

[Pinky's Brain]

They don't produce a very good green. Frequency doubled IR is not an option either because you can't modulate the beam fast enough.

Re:Price is expected to be

[madfgurtbn]

Frequency doubled IR is not an option either because you can't modulate the beam fast enough.

Actually, the Corning green lasers in the ShowWX are freq doubled. True green is not expected for several years at least. More on the Corning lasers here.

Cool!

[Penguinshit]

Now I can project even more realistic UFOs on low clouds near the airport!

Great for bedtime

[serutan]

Project a movie or an e-book on your ceiling. No more tired arms from holding books up. I'm getting one of these babies!

Re:Can somebody explain how it works?

[Myriad]

This has been done before, IIRC Samsung released one of the first TV quality raster scanning system for laser shows.

Basically a standard laser show setup uses multiple lasers (to get your RGB) combined into a single beam then passed through a device, such as a PCAOM, which acts as rather like a programmable colour filter. (this isn't the only way it can be done with solid state lasers).

Two sets of mirrors can be steered in the X and Y axis to draw your shapes, beam effects, etc.

In the case of a TV or other raster displays the beam is steered much like you would an electron beam on a regular TV. It scans a horizontal line, moves down scans across, repeat. You can switch the direction of the scan (left to right, then right to left) on alternating lines to speed up the scan rate.

Wikipedia has some info on Laser TV's in general: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_TV and LaserFX has some info on PCAOM's if you're interested in the older tech: http://www.laserfx.com/Backstage.LaserFX.com/Archives/Archives6.html

Early systems actually used multiple projectors overlapping or drawing the first 3rd, 2nd third, etc of the image to make up for slower scan rates.