Laser

Microvision announced today that it's opening its web store for US customers - who can now buy the Show WX laser (LBS) pico projector. The Show WX standard edition will cost $549 and will ship on March 24th. The Show WX offers 848x480 resolution and 10 lumens, and it's small and light (only 122 grams). The image is always in focus, of course, being a laser projector!

Microvision will also offer a limited edition Show WX. This will include a personalized splash screen bearing the name of its owner, SHOWWX with 'Limited Edition' insignia, certificate of authenticity and a SHOWWX VGA dock plus other accessories not included with the Standard Edition. The price is $999, and these projectors will start shipping today.

The nice folks at AAXA has sent us one of their new L1 laser pico projectors for review. Just for your information, AAXA is an advertiser here at picoprojector-info, but I'll try to be as objective as possible.

The L1 Pico-Projector is a small laser-driven LCoS pico-projector (800x600, 20 lumens). It is focus-free, which is great (more on this later). It can accept RCA/VGA/S-Video inputs, and can also read files from a USB key (which is very useful). It's got a little bit of internal memory (160Mb) - which only makes sense for documents or presentations. The L1 costs $599, it's an expensive pico!

Photodigm is a US based company, developing and producing precision lasers since 2000. They are now starting to address the pico-projector laser market. But Photodigm has a different approach then other laser companies.

They say that commercial green lasers today are made using frequency doubling of readily available near infrared lasers. However, the most efficient approach is complex and expensive. The cheapest approach is inefficient, resulting in short battery life. On the horizon are native green lasers, but the materials system for them is devilishly complex, and low yields and high costs threaten to keep these out of consumer products for years.

Convinced that the industry was on the wrong track, Photodigm explored the problem from the ground up. They concluded that the green laser is not the problem. The RGB module is.  Working from their core technology of precision near infrared lasers, Photodigm has developed a technology that promises to deliver a module that is cheap, efficient, scalable, and compact.

Photodigm are currently in talks with several strategic partners from the consumer side, in order to commercialize the technology. They believe that their pico-projector laser modules might be available at around 2011. We'll keep watching ;-)

Mitsumi Electric has developed a new PZT-driven MEMS mirror for laser (LBS) projectors, which has a 10mW power consumption with drive voltage 'as small as several volts'. They have shown a prototype of this mirror with a green laser, providing 512x512 images at 60fps.

Via TechOn

Here's a nice hands-on video of the new AAXA L1 laser pico projector. The L1 is a focus-free laser-driven LCoS projector (20 lumens, 800x600, up to 50" images) with a built-in media player that is now shipping for $599.

You can buy the L1 here for $599.

AAXA's latest pico-projector, the L1 laser pico projector is now shipping for $599. This is a smallish focus-free laser-driven LCoS projector (20 lumens, 800x600, up to 50" images) with a built-in media player.

The L1 costs $599, and is now shipping. AAXA admits that laser-diodes are available in very limited quantities, and supplies of the L1 are limited...

AAXA has announced their latest pico-projector, the L1 laser pico projector. This is a laser-driven LCoS projector (20 lumens, 800x600, up to 50" images) with a built-in media player. It's tiny: 4.2" x 2.1" x 0.8" and weighs just 170 grams (including the battery). It uses lasers, so it's focus-free and can project on curved surfaces. It has 160MB of internal memory, but can access USB disks, and a 2GB one is included. It supports movie, photo and audio files. It also supports office documents. AAXA say that the battery life is 90 minutes.

The L1 costs $599, and is ready for pre-order (should start shipping on February 12). Interestingly, AAXA admits that laser-diodes are available in very limited quantities, and supplies of the L1 are limited...

Digitimes reports that Sony plans to design and develop laser-beam-steering based pico-projector modules to be used in their digital cameras. Sony are in talks with Opus Microsystems, and might use their scanning mirror chips.

Asia Optical is set to launch new LED-based DLP pico-projector modules. They have already landed contract orders for embedded pico-projectors for digital cameras.

Asia Optical has been supplying pico-projector modules for Microvision's Show WX, and they expect to ship 200,000-250,000 projectors to microvision in 2010.

Asia Optical is bullish on pico-projectors: they expect to ship 8 million pico-projector modules for mobile phones in 2011. In 2010 they plan to ship only 100,000... Asia Optical has been supplying pico-projector modules for Microvision's Show WX, and the expect to ship 200,000-250,000 projectors to microvision in 2010.