Today we feature a summary review from associatedcontent.com, written by Blair Mathis, on the Aiptek Pocket Cinema V10 pico projector. Blair describes the V10 mostly in terms of its ability to play movies citing the 1gb internal memory and 60-70 minute battery life as not enough to store and play a full length film. He does mention that the memory can be expanded via a microSD card reader and that the V10 can be charged and powered via the USB port or wall charger. He rates the V10 image quality as poor and 10 lumens as very low, especially when considering the $300 price tag.
Click here for the full review of the Aiptek Pocket Cinema V10 pico projector on associatedcontent.com
The fine folks over at projectorcentral.com recently got their hands on the L1 Laser projector from Aaxa Technologies and wrote up their first review on this new technology. They gave it 5 stars on performance while noting the price is still significantly higher than most other non-laser based projectors. When performance and size are your most important factors this may be your best option.
Our friends at Pico Projector Info have found the first review video on the Aaxa L1 Laser projector. If you recall, these items started shipping out very recently and are starting to make their real-life appearances. Here is a user breaking the L1 down with features and capabilities.
The L1 laser projector features a focus-free laser-driven operation with a built-in media player – as can be seen in the video. Also new is the ability to detect different office document formats including Power Point, Word, Excell, and more.
There is a cheap ($149) and generic mini-USB micro projector now listed on Amazon. While not very spectacular in any regards, it has taken the pole position of cheap. It has no features and must be coupled with either a desktop or a laptop. It is USB powere.
Even in price, is isn’t anything spectacular. The Sanwa USB projector is similar in specifications and at $179, it only costs $30 more than the generic USB pocket projector.
It seems that the first batch of the infamous laser projectors has finally shipped out. We’ve seen plenty of articles showing the Microvision ShowWX, however, no one has really had one in hand. It looks as if Aaxa and their L1 Laser Projector will be the first on the market for handheld laser projection units.
Aside from being a pico projector with laser capabilities, the coolest thing about this unit is the ability to always stay in focus. Due to the lasers being used as opposed to LED projectors, images on the Aaxa L1 Laser Projector will stay clear from one wall to the next without having to mess around with the focus wheel. Further, it can generate an image on two surfaces at varying distances at the same time.
The Aaxa L1 Laser Projector also has an incredible color range. The colors look exponentially more vivid and clear than projectors of the past. We are definitely interested in seeing more to come from these laser projectors.
According to Max Hu, marketing director at AaxaTech, in his interview with CNet:
“Our engine uses an LCOS panel vs. their beam-steering MEM’s design. The diffused laser light allows higher brightness and classification as a FCC Class 1 product vs. a focused beam design which has eye safety issues. In that regard, our design has the potential for much brighter designs in the future (which we are currently developing).”
He states that the laser engine in the Aaxa L1 is completely different from the recently star-lighted ShowWX by Microvision.
As of now, these are the only two laser pocket projectors that have been shown to the general public. Microvision has yet to set a release date or a price on the ShowWX but we can most likely assume that it will be soon.
Interestingly, Aaxa states that supplies on the L1 are extremely limited due to the limited supply of laser diodes. The Aaxa L1 Laser Projector is available for pre-order and will begin shipping February 12th.
Aaxa’s new L1 laser projector represents a revolution in the handheld projector arena. By combining red, green, and blue lasers with a LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) imager Aaxa has produced the world’s first handheld laser projector available to the general public.
So What’s So Special about a Laser Projector?
Focus-less operation
Besides the “cool” factor, a laser projector has a variety of uses. Unique to laser projectors is its ability to produce an image without focusing lenses. This means that blurry images are a thing of the past – the image produced by a laser projector is always in focus no matter how far or close the surface is. From a practical standpoint a focus less projector has a variety of uses besides just not having to change the focus every time you move the projector. With a focus-less laser projector curved surfaces such as windshields and aircraft canopies now become viable surfaces for projection. Also rapid changes in projection distance are now possible – meaning a laser projector can be rapidly directed to a variety of projection surfaces – which obviously has a multitude of practical applications.
Improvements over existing handheld projectors
Besides a focus-less optical system, the laser projector has several distinct advantages over LED based hand-held projectors. Because there is no such thing as a white laser, laser projectors rely on individual red, green, and blue lasers which eliminate the color wheel or color filter found in most hand-held projectors. This means better and more vivid colors over traditional hand-held projectors. Furthermore laser optical engines are slightly more efficient than LED based optical engines, and with optical efficiencies frequently less than 15% on most LED projectors even a subtle increase in efficiency means improvements in the size and output of the projection system.
What are the downsides of laser projectors?
The number one issue impairing laser projectors is “speckling”. The “speckling” problem literally means “speckles” in the image. Often this appears as if magic-reflective-fairy-dust was sprinkled on the projected image which distracts the viewer and makes the image hard to view. Speckling occurs when the laser light strikes the projected surface, and the reflected light waves (what you see) interferes with each other – sort of like the wave propagation experiments we all played with in high-school physics. There are a variety of ways electrical, mechanical, and optical methods to combat speckling, some of them more effective than others – but none have succeeded in 100% eliminating the speckle issue.
aaxa laser pico projector
Another major concern of laser projectors is the pixilation / meshing issue. While more of a problem for beam-steering and DLP laser applications, the issue exists in all laser projection systems. Generally speaking LCOS imagers tend to reduce this problem – but it remains to be seen whether or not Aaxa’s laser projector will exhibit these issues.
Bottom line
Overall Aaxa’s L1 laser projector appears to be the whole shebang and a truly revolutionary departure in the handheld projector arena. It is tiny, makes 20 lumens with high resolution (brighter / higher resolution than any other pico projector its size), has an acceptable battery life, and best of all has an onboard file viewer that can both play videos and show Power Point and PDF files. The only concerns that we have is the high price tag – $599 – almost double its nearest competitor, the 3M Mpro150.
We can’t wait to get our hands on one for testing…
The news isn’t for good, however, Sundance recently hosted the ShowWX Festival where pico projectors and random items were used as screens instead of the 200ft multiplex screen.
According to Stuff, the items used as screens for these pico projectors ranged from sheets of ice to a woman’s bare back.
The Showxx Festival showcased mostly indie movies including Ken Russell’s Boudica Bites Back and Delphinium, a coming age story by director Derek Jarman.
The two main feature screens were a 100-inch wall of ice that was intended to melt to the ground by the time the festival was over and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel lie-in theater where viewers would lay down to see the feature.
It seems that many gadgets are starting to couple a micro or pico projector right on to the platform. TI’s OMAP4 chipset will be able to drive 3 different displays simultaneously and includes a pico projector.
The way Slashgear describes the new OMAP4 based device, the three different displays and pico projector look as if they are going on to a sort of smartphone or tablet-based reader.
The significant bump in processing speed on the OMAP4 will be due to the dual 1GHz ARM A9 cores. Even though processing speed is increased, the chip set should also be more efficient giving users roughly 145 hours on a 1,000 mAh battery.
The video displays on the OMAP4 will allow for two onboard screens and an external display which can be used in place of the onboard pico projector. For example, if you want to watch a movie while keeping your browser and email open, you can plug your video out in to an external monitor. If an external monitor is not on hand, you can play your movie directly on to a flat surface via the built-in projector.
According to chairman Robert Lai, Asia Optical is set to send out 8-million pocket projector units for handsets in 2010 – an exponential number from 2010’s mere 100,000 units.
Together with Microvision, Asia Optical has launched Microvision’s SHOWWX pico projector and expects to send Microvision 200,000 – 250,000 pico projector modules.
According to Digitimes, “Lai cited Gartner data saying that global built-in pico projector shipments are expected to reach eight million units in 2010, 20 million units in 2011, 34 million units in 2012, 54 million units in 2013, 77 million units in 2014 and 116 million units in 2015.”
The fine folks over at projectorcentral.com recently got their hands on the L1 Laser projector from Aaxa Technologies and wrote up their first review on this new technology. They gave it 5 stars on performance while noting the price is still significantly higher than most other non-laser based projectors. When performance and size are your most important factors this may be your best option.
