February 17, 2006 Miniaturised projection is one of those technologies that has been promised for so long that it has developed the permanent stench of vapourware. Now we’re confident we can say it’s time is nearing, with both DigiSlide and Light Blue Optics showing miniscule demonstration units in the last week. Light Blue Optics’ PVPro technology for miniature projectors is now available to potential partners as a demonstrator unit, which is only 62cc in volume, and is similar in size and shape to a typical matchbox. Projectors based on PVPro technology can be used to display images from a range of mobile devices, including laptop computers, personal media players such as the video iPod, digital cameras and even mobile phones.
Light Blue Optics has developed unique laser-based projection technology, which uses computational algorithms and novel optical techniques to allow miniature lasers to display video images in real-time using the diffractive nature of laser light. This overcomes the size limitation of conventional projection techniques, allowing projectors to be smaller than ever before.
The latest monochrome ‘micro-mini’ version represents the third generation of the PVPro algorithms and optomechanical design (we originally wrote up the company’s technology two years ago). It is a crucial step in allowing the company’s customers to manufacture compact projectors for use in a range of applications.
Nic Lawrence, CEO, commented, “Our vision is to make it simple for people to share photos with their friends and to comfortably view mobile TV and music videos from their mobile devices. We believe that access to a large display, such as is provided by our PVPro projection technology, is key to increasing ease of use.”
The advantage of the Light Blue Optics approach is to address the four key requirements for a small battery-powered device. These are compact size, low power consumption, which allows the projector to be battery-powered, ease of use due to the focus-free operation of the system, and robustness both physically and in terms of error-tolerance.
PVPro technology is available today to manufacturers as an evaluation kit which includes a demonstration projector unit, appropriate PC software, technical documentation and a bundled package of technical support.
Light Blue Optics is working with a select group of strategic partners to bring to market the first products based on PVPro technology.
Light Blue Optics is demonstrating the miniature PVPro evaluation kit at the 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona this week and if any company would like to arrange a demonstration, they should contact Amy Mokady, Light Blue Optics VP of Sales & Marketing.
