LCoS

Karl Guttag posted an interesting article in which he answers several questions people asked - regarding lasers, Syndiant's technology and business, how Microvision's technology and LBS lasers in general compare to Syndiant's LCoS solutions, and more. Well worth a read!

Praytech Communication Technology (a Shenzhen, China based mobile phone maker) introduced two new DLP devices, a projector phone and a pico projector. We don't have any information about the phone, but it is reported that it will replace Praytech's older model which uses an LCoS light engine, and will be marketed to mobile network providers in India and China.

The pico projector uses an optical engine by iView which features 640x480 resolution and 12 lumens. It will be marketed by China Telecom, bundled with smartphones.

Here's a nice interview with Syndiant's VP sales & marketing - Keith Lewis. The interview is from the "Grow Your Business" channel - by Microsoft ERP, so most of the talk is about Syndiant's supply chain and how they manage it, but it is still interesting:

Asia Optical says that they plan to ship 2 million LCoS pico projector modules in 2012 - half of them embedded in smart phones and half in external pico projectors. Apparently most of these projector phones (if not all) will be launched by China-based vendors, probably to the Chinese market.

Asia Optical managed to decrease the production cost of an LCoS module to below $20.

Syndiant announced their new 720p LCoS pico-projector module. The SYL2271 provides 1280x720 resolution with a .37" display diagonal that can fit into a package that is just 7.75mm high. The LCoS panel itself is made by Fujitsu and is the world's first 130 nm LCoS panel. Syndiant says that already several companies are developing light engines based on this new chip.

Together with the SYL2271, Syndiant (in collaboration with Toshiba) also developed the SYA1231 controller that includes an ARM processor that can be used to implement custom features to differentiate the product and enhance the user experience.

Karl Guttag was the co-founder and CTO of Syndiant, and he has now left the company. Karl says he's still a firm believer in LCoS, we do not know why he left exactly - "So please don’t take my leaving Syndiant as any sign that pico projectors or LCOS is not going to happen, because I’m still a big believer in LCOS based pico projectors and particularly the future of laser illuminated LCOS pico projectors."

Karl also started a new blog - which will focus on pico projectors and also include his views on technology, start-ups, micro displays and other issues. This will be an interesting one to watch. Karl was always happy to help us here at PicoProjector-Info with news, updates and interviews (we conducted three interviews with Karl: on July 2009, May 2010, and December 2010).

Karl has proved to be a good friend and colleague - so I can only wish him good luck in his new ventures!

We just got word that 3M'2 new CP-45 projector camcorder is using Syndiant's SYL2043 LCoS module. This is not a surprise as we already know that the MP160 and MP180 projector use Syndiant's technology.

3M's CP45 is 3M's 2nd generation projector camcorder (an upgrade to the CP40) that offers HD (720p) videos, 5mp still camera, LED flash and 2GB of memory (and a microSD slot). It also has a small 2.4" LCD. The projector offers SVGA (800x600) resolution at 20 lumens. It includes A/V and composite inputs. The CP45 costs $299 in the US and £299.99 in the UK and Europe.