The advancement of technology for micro projectors has been amazing. From Texas Instruments DLP, to a plethora of LCoS manufacturers such as 3M, Syndiant, Aurora, MEMs designs from players like Microvision all these technologies have been converted into product within the last 3 years.

Now with OLED technology beginning to see commercialization will OLED lead the micro projector charge?

Hypoled seems to think so with its new OLED imager:

http://www.hypoled.org/

But judging from the prices of Sony’s OLED TV’s, perhaps we are still a little bit away from commercialization.

We have reviewed the AAXA P2 Micro Projector!

BASIC SPECS:

Class: Pico Projector

Bulb: LED

Resolution: 800×600

Brightness: 33 Lumens

Contrast: 1000:1

MSRP: $349.00

http://www.aaxatech.com/products/p2_pico_projector.htm

The video doesn’t really do the projector justice – here’s pictures in room with natural daylight coming in and some lights on.

Here’s a test with lights off.  The color quality and the resolution really shines in the dark.

Optoma has announced the release of its PK100 micro projector.  Like its siblings it features 11 lumens of brightness and 480×320 of resolution.  Unlike its siblings it does not have an onboard media player but at $199 it does come in at a very low price point.  However with the PK101 and PK102 at $229 and $249 respectively, and the looks virtually identical, we are getting very confused indeed!  Perhaps this is an attempt to phase out the PK101 in favor of the PK100 and PK102…  Either way it should be an interesting holiday season!

3M’s new Mpro120 has launched targeting the higher end of the market.   The Mpro120 features 12 lumens and a new RGB sequential optical engine (as previously discussed here).  Also added are on-board media features.  At $385 however, it might be a hard sell to anything but the business customer.

Optoma has launched the PK-102 to target the lower end of the market.  Improved from the PK-101 is contrast, 4gb onboard memory, and VGA adapter.  Another improvement is the price – we see them going for $250 which is an improvement from the $299 price of the PK-101.   However the resolution remains the same at 480 x 240 as does lumens at 10.

According to PC Mag, Ray displays will be launching a $249 micro projector which Ray Display’s claims is $100 less than the cheapest micro projector on the market.

REALLY???

A quick search of Amazon will reveal:

AAXA P1 MOBILE PROJECTOR – $219.00

http://www.amazon.com/AAXA-P1-Pico-Projector-Titanium/dp/B001TR0LOS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1250809666&sr=8-1

3M MPRO MOBILE PROJECTOR – $219.00

http://www.amazon.com/3M-78-9236-7702-1-Professional-Projector-MPRO110/dp/B001IYDI6K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1250809733&sr=1-1

OPTOMA PK101 MOBILE PROJECTOR – $289.00

http://www.amazon.com/Optoma-EP-PK-101-PICO-Pocket-Projector/dp/B001L4L7AQ/ref=pd_cp_e_1

Perhaps the google-fu ain’t so strong at Ray Displays…

http://venturebeat.com/2009/08/19/syndiant-maker-of-pico-projector-chips-raises-107m/

Syndiant technology has announced it has raised $10.7 million to ramp up production of its LCoS panels. The liquid crystal on silicon panels are employed in micro projectors as the key imager ingredient in the projector. This technology rivals that of

Texas Instruments DLP technology as well as LCD technology employed by Epson in their mobile projectors. The Syndiant technology is very similar to other LCoS manufacturers such as Micron in that its field technology does not employ a color filter so is primarily used in RGB type mobile projectors.

This is exciting news micro projector industry as many of the key players in this industry are attracting real funds as demand for mobile projectors and embedded micro projector solutions continues to increase.

Microvision announced Q3 earnings last Friday.  According to the press release Microvision has stated “We are rapidly approaching the introduction of Microvision’s first product based on our proprietary PicoP display engine which is scheduled for later this summer. We are completing the product reliability and quality testing and we are validating manufacturing processes at our suppliers. Additionally, we are finalizing supply quantities that will be available to support our commercial introduction this year and as we have previously indicated, we estimate that the demand for the Show WX will exceed the initial quantities available in 2009…”

After several years in development Microvision will finally be releasing the PicoP based on laser technology.  While there are several distinct advantages to laser technology such as small form factor, the focus-less optical engine, and low power consumption there are also several major dis-advantages too, one being the inability to create a bright picture less someone’s eyes get burned out!

With second generation micro projectors being released by 3M, AAXA, and a plethora of other manufacturers, we wonder if Microvision can truly compete in the micro projector market with a 10 lumen mobile projector.  Surely there will be applications for the Microvision technology, such as automobile HUDs display units and the like, but as it stands now it may be difficult for Microvision’s PicoP to be truly a contender in the mobile projector market.

What happens, of course, will remain to be seen once Microvision releases its long awaited micro projector engine.

It’s rumored that 3M is currently developing a second generation micro projector module that will increase optical efficiency while maintaining a VGA resolution of 640 x 480.  This new micro projector module may be employed in 3M’s second generation mobile projector.

While specifications are not confirmed, the micro projector engine is supposed to have a VGA resolution, capable of 15 lumens, and power consumption of less than 2.5 watts.   If this is true, this truly takes us one step closer to cell phone integration as this is almost 6 lumens per watt, an improvement over AAXA’s 3.5 lumen per watt yield and Dell’s 1.5 lumen per watt yield on their micro and mobile  projectors respectively.

As cameras get loaded with features, leave it to Nikon to come up with the first micro projector camera.  The Nikon Coolpix S1000 is a standard point and shoot camera with a built in 640×480 projector.

With 12.1 Megapixels, a 5x wide angle zoom, and a projector brightness of “up to” 10 lumens this projector camera is going to be able to produce a nice 30-40” image in the dark.  A great way to share pictures with your friends.

The battery life is approximately one hour with the projector on which means you better share your pictures quick if you plan on using this camera like a normal camera.

Either way it’s a cool first step into the integration of mobile devices and micro projectors.

SPECS

*12.1 Megapix point and shoot

*5x optical zoom (Wide Angle)

*10 Lumen (up to) micro projector

*640 x 480 (VGA) resolution micro projector

*1 Hour battery life

Hello and welcome to my blog about micro projectors.