Microvision SHOW Prototype
I wrote about the Microvision PicoProjector (PicoP) before. Now I am happy to report they are making a good progress. At CES (Consumer Electronic Show) 2008 in Las Vegas Microvision presented the SHOW Prototype, a working product to prove their technology really delivers. The device is about the size of a cigarette pack. This is still too much to be implanted inside a mobile phone, but there are many devices that would benefit having the PicoP built-in.Notebooks: many notebook users frequently conduct presentations (internal or external) in a group of a few people - be it coworkers or customers. The small meeting rooms usually have walls, but often lack projectors. Personally I would love to have the PicoP built-in my notebook. Yes, I would sacrifice 150 grams of weight to be able to "beam" a PowerPoint slide deck or an Excel Spreadsheet anywhere. Or to show the pictures just acquired from a digital camera to my family and friends.
Spending half of my life with notebook computers it is really tough for me to imagine an electronic device that could not be emulated by a notebook computer. I mean portable DVD players (notebooks play DVDs), game consoles (notebooks let you play games), personal navigation devices (notebooks can navigate when connected to GPS receivers)... but there are reasons these devices still exist. The main reason is devices dedicated to just one task execute thos task well, without the hassles of complicated setup and software issues. So yes... all these devices are good candidates to have the PicoP projectors built-in.
And how the ultimate PicoP application looks like? Well... I can recommend you watching the Cisco Telepresence demonstration. Today the Telepresence is a very high end, very expensive teleconferencing system. In future, thanks to Microvision and others the Telepresence will be built in every mobile phone (should I use the word "phone"?). This is how the personal telecommunication devices will work. Be prepared :)
The Picop is just the little part at the front. It's 5 cc.
ReplyDeleteThe rest is battery (which your laptop or phone already has).
That is certainly a good information. But still I think the rest is not just a battery, there must be some interfacing electronics (that could be more integrated in future versions). And speaking about the battery - the power consumption is still too high for a cellphone. If you say the projector is 5cc then it needs a 115cc battery to run for 1.5 hours. A standard phone battery is half of that so we are talking about 45 minutes to drain it completely. This is one of the issues to be solved and in the meantime I see more applications in laptops and other portable electronics. When they have version 3, it will go inside a phone.
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