Now Project Movies From Your PDA
By CXOtoday Staff
Dec 31, 2004 1645 hrs IST

A tiny video projector, the size of cigarette packet, will create the opportunity to do for movies what the iPod has done for music. Developed by Light Blue Optics, a company grown from the department of engineering at the University of Cambridge, this unique 'holographic video projector', uses lasers and holograms to create a sharp image without the need for expensive light bulbs or bulky projection lenses. A traditional digital projector uses a white light bulb, a color wheel of filters, and a lens to magnify the image for projection. The problem is that these bulbs are expensive at up to " 400 a time, are fragile, and have a short life. The increasing use of projection in many different applications has created a demand for a more robust and cost-effective projector. The Light Blue Optics video projector works by creating a 2Dimensional holographic image of the picture in real time. The holographic pattern, which appears to the eye as a random pattern of dots, is displayed using a small liquid-crystal-on-silicon (LCOS) microdisplay and illuminated using a laser. The light is diffracted to produce a sharp, high quality image, which can be projected on to a screen or wall without the need for a bulky projection lens. The projector successfully overcomes a number of technical issues. One of the features of this little piece of technology is the Light Blue Optics' proprietary 'hologram chip' which can generate 200 frames a second (video films are 50 frames a second). Normally holograms are extremely complex mathematically and previously have been very slow to calculate. Also, conventional holographic images tend to be speckled - the 'holographic video projector' produces sharp images with virtually no speckle. Digital video projectors are comparatively bulky - this projector could soon be integrated into a laptop, PDA or even a mobile phone. Nic Lawrence, managing director of Light Blue Optics believes that the technology has many applications in consumer, aviation and industrial environments. Says Lawrence, "The possibility of showing a movie using this projector with a PDA is becoming a reality. In addition, it has serious industrial applications; a major aircraft developer is investigating the use of our technology for improving the 'head-up' display in the aircraft cockpit." Products using this technology should also be cost-effective as lasers are steadily coming down in price. Red lasers are already down below " 10, and can offer five times improvement in life-time over a bulb.