Texas Instruments

Digitimes has posted an interesting update about pico-projectors.First of all, they report that the upcoming Nikon camera-projector will be using Himax Technologies' LCoS module. It will hit the market in August. Another digital camera with a DLP projector is being co-developed by Asia Optical and TI. It will start shipping in September.

Asia Optical plans to ship 200,000-250,000 modules for Microvisions' Show-WX projector in 2010, and 100,000 modules for other vendors. In 2011 they expect to ship 8 million DLP modules for handsets. In 2012 it will grow to 12 million.

Digitimes also gives an update on pricing: a 11cc DLP light engine was priced at about $65-100 in 2009, and this will drop to $50-85 in 2010, with the size shrinking to 8cc. A 10cc LCoS costs $65 (in 2009, anyway), and this will be reduced to $30-50 in 2010, with the size dropping to only 4.5cc.

Syndiant's SID exhibition booth will be interesting - they will compare 6 pico-projector technologies, side by side. This is an interesting comparison. Obviously the Syndiant projector seems best. You can see the photos for yourself below, and obviously visitors to SID will be able to check this personally to make sure that all projectors are used in full brightness and haven't been messed-up with...

The six projectors are: An LBS projector (which is actually the Microvision Show-WX), Syndiant's own LCoS projector, Ferroelectric LCoS (these are made by Micron, and the projector looks like a 3M MPro, not sure which one), a 848x480 WVGA DLP, a color-filter LCoS and a 480x320 DLP projector.Click here and here to see the two photos in full resolution.

Optoma's upcoming pico-projectors, the PK201 and the PK301 are now up for pre-order over at Amazon.com. Both use TI's new WVGA (854x480) DLP chip, has USB/VGA/HDMI/A/V ports and  internal memory and microSD slots, and can play back several movie and photo formats. Both are expected to ship within a few weeks.

The PK201 sports 20 lumens (or 12 lumens at eco-mode) and has one 0.5w speaker and an audio-out jack. The PK201 costs $299.

Optoma PK201

The PK301 is very bright at 50 lumens (it also has a 20-lumens eco-mode). It also has a 0.5w speaker and audio-out jack. Optoma will also offer an external battery pack because the high-brightness mode needs a lot of power. The PK301 costs $399.

Optoma PK301

Here's a nice video from the Mobile World Congress show - TI demoing their DLP pico-projector chipsets and gadgets that use it (the Samsung Beam and W9600, LG Expo and NTT DoCoMo dock F-04B).

TI announced a new DLP chipset for pico-projectors, which is the thinnest and smallest to date. It has nHD resolution (640x360), 1000:1 contrast ratio, true RGB LED wide color gamut. TI say it also has an improved power efficiency and electronic footprint compared to their previous DLP chipsets. 

The nHD chipset is 20% thinner than the WVGA chipset and 50% smaller in volume. TI say the new nHD chipset will enter production in 2H 2010, but 'leading manufacturers' already include it in their next-generation designs. Via Engadget.

TI has announce version 2 of their DLP Pico Projector Development Kit. The new kit adds HDMI direct PC connection (there's also a DVI to HDMI adapter). It also includes a sync signal output and selectable high-speed DMD patterns with a variety of frame rates.

The v2 kit will sell for $349 and is available now from TI. Via Slashgear.

Here's a couple of short videos about DLP pico projectors. The first show the first camcorder with a pico projector add-on:

The second video is showing Samsung's W9600 projector phone, a quick demonstration:

Both DLP projectors use the new WVGA chip (854x480 DLP Gen 2).