New Tiny Display w/ Full Colour

Benjamin Scherrey wrote in to send us a CNN Tech story with a strange display device. It sorta looks like a handheld TV, but it looks like it can do 800x600. Looks like it would be awkward.

I prefer head mounted

[jetson123]

I find handheld devices with optics in them to be rather difficult to look into for a long period of time. At the very least, it keeps one or both hands busy, making data entry hard.

Similar technology will soon be available for headmounted displays that disappear into fairly normal looking glasses. Since most nerds wear glasses anyway... :-)

Does this use T.I.'s Micro-mirror technology

[ereuter]

The article doesn't say much about how it works. It sounds like it may be using the silicon micro-mirror technology developed by Texas Instruments where silicon is polished and etched into thousands of tiny, deflectable micro-mirrors, each one controlled by a transistor.

Anyone know if that's what they are using?

Re:Digital Paper?

[rde]

Digital paper is being tested by a couple of companies; it's in a a somewhat different format. Check out last week's New Scientist [newscientist.com].

another look at the same gizmo

[triple6]

I thought this looked familiar. I'd seen this on ZDTV's Fresh Gear: inViso OptiScape II [zdnet.com].

As much as I'd like a sharp display for a wearable, they say that this is hard to look at for extended periods. And I'd hate to have to hold it all the time. Head mount anyone?!

Re:Battery Life

[Ben Hutchings]

The web page for the product [inviso.com] says that it's only around 100 mW. They also have a data sheet there if you want to know the details.

Re:Is that a complete wearable computer?

[vermiculture]

and I quote: "Invisio is targeting the Optiscope at the next generation of cellular phones...." Nice to see the people passing me on the Mass Pike will be able do something with their free eye (that being the one not getting the mascara treatment at the time...)

Re:Digital Paper?

[jilles]

I actually did read an entire book on screen. It was a laptop screen. Though the resolution was low (480x640), it did not give me any headaches.
LCD screens don't flicker, hence no headache. I don't mind about the resolution at all. It's the size of the screen that matters (physical size). I don't mind if the letters are a bit jagged as long as they're big enough to read.

LCDs with paper-like resolutions already here

[jetson123]

1600x1200 color LCD screens already essentially have paper-like resolution if you look at b/w images (you get about 1600x3600 or 4800x1200). Actual resolution is perhaps still a little lower than paper, but the fact that the LCDs let you control the intensity of each pixel more than makes up for that.

Note that an 800x600 display with paper resolution is not "digital paper"; at best, it's a "digital postage stamp display". The technologies used for making the 800x600 displays can't scale up to paper-sized displays right now.

The first company to produce LCD displays with paper-like resolutions was probably Xerox's dpiX. But their initial products were very expensive, and other LCD technologies seem to have caught up.

Of course, in addition to LCDs with paper-like resolutions, there is true "digital paper"--stuff where the display persists when the power is removed and that can be rolled (though not folded).

Another microdisplay supplier

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a relevant link:
http://www.microdisplay.com/
Eval kits won't be cheap ($2K for 800x600 color),
but if you need it ...

Mini projectors.

[Anonymous Coward]

What I'd like to see is some sort of mini projector for small info devices. It does'nt even have to push the lux or anything, and the max range would be 20-30cm. (btw: anyone seen anything like it ? I've seen the direct retinal scan thing) Think about the applications of a mini 800 x 600 projector:

your gps8 in your car projects a map across to a READABLE sized white panel/sheet/rollable upable view screen. For that matter.. think about a gps projecting your actual position onto an actual paper map.... hmmm... now THERES a #@$%@#$% brilliant idea. All it would take is a red dot trained onto a pre-defined area of paper

Or.... you pull out your slightly misty white 200mm cube of perspex, and turn your projector to project inside your cube. Hey presto. Instant Holographic map of the surrounding terrain. Why's no1 using that either ????

Your cellphone AKA digital camera AKA mp3 player recieves a photo of your friends in Tahiti. You point the projector end at a piece of developer paper, and hey presto, your digital picture pops up. Hit "Print" and the ultraviolet/microwave sensitive paper prints the pic instantly. Polaroid suddenly corners the printing market. You get bored and hit the sound analyser button, and hey presto, you project your favourite music sound spectrum onto a wall.

You get to work, roll down the projector screen on your laptop (either scanned on from behind or infront depending on how much u spent). Cheap. COMPACT. but lux limited. You set the projector to fixed pattern scan mode, stick it infront of a machine component, plug in your 3d spatial scanner, and get an instant 3d cad profile via realtime interferrometry or pattern geometric distortion, or any other available means.

Plug in your ever useful projector into an industrial amplifier and beam splitter. (No, that is'nt made by Industrial Light and Magic) You need to get that CAD-CAM scan out pronto. The amplified beam shines from 3 locations into a milky white resin and scans the 3d model line by line, and into the goo, slowly building a solid model. Thats been done before, but do we get the idea yet?


And that was 2 minutes worth of ideas (on perhaps weird) apps.

Onei
--->Lazy bastard whos too lazy to look up his password, but has time to blow up his mp3 player @#$%@#$%@#$%!!!!!! For that matter....I'm short on email, write me if u think I've gone off the deep end.
[e-mail]

800x600? Perfect for Quake!

[Gary Franczyk]

If you were to put two of these screens into a set of goggles, and wrote a specialized video card that output the 3d data for two screens - each slightly skewed from each other, you could make one awesome set of 3d googles. That would be perfect for Quake 3 arena!! 800x600 is just about enough (for now) to play quake adequately!

Re:Does this use T.I.'s Micro-mirror technology

[jonathan_b_king]

Don't think so. Says "Reflective CMOS" ... TI uses a teeter-totter type system, where they turn "pixels" on and off by biasing the "board" one way or the other, and changing the reflection vector.

If this is anything like DisplayTech's [displaytech.com] stuff, it's a LCD layer on top of a conventional chip that has a silvered or highly reflective layer just under the LCD. Then by turning each LCD pixel on/off they can change whether light is absorbed/scattered or reflected back (by the "mirror" under the LCD).

Then you can either put one of these at the other end of a colorwheel, and index your primaries, relying on the eye to merge the images, or you can take three of them, and use a special prism (Philips?) to separate out and recombine the RGB images.

Pretty cool technology. But it'll never be used on a "large" scale... like the paper thread. Silicon's too expensive! But projection now...

What I really want is my $300 HDTV projector. I know that DisplayTech has 1600x1200 (at least in the proto stage, although all I saw working was an 800x600). That's not too much lower than the 19??x???? needed for HDTV.

Later,
Jon

Same technology as the TI based projectors

[sdw]

TI has been selling the basic chip used in high-end projectors for several years now that uses this same idea. They build a silicon grid of little micromachined mirrors that act as a ram array. The difference between 0 and 1 is 10-15 degrees which is enough to create an on-off visual state. They work great because of the speed and the high-reflectivity.
I have always thought that the simplicity of this display method would mean that it would replace CRT's fairly quickly, but it looks like TI has been milking the market for big bucks first. The Digital Light Switch based projectors have been $10,000. If they ever sell the basic technlogy for a reasonable price it will have quite an impact.
I'm pleased to see it being used in a hand-held device. There must have been some breakthrough or competition in the basic chip.

Battery Life

[matta]

They don't mention how much power the thing sucks down. If it is substantially more than current technology, it won't catch on.

Re:Battery Life

[Red XIII]

Yes it does!

It also uses considerably less power than other types of flat-panel displays and can go into a standby mode that uses minimal power.

-R13

Digital Paper?

[VinceV]

If this is real then digital paper is finally here. This little screen has a better dpi resolution than a laser printer, which means the text could be as clean and readable as a paper book. The resolution of text is the biggest obstacle to digital reading, because low res just puts too much strain on the eyes. (Have you tried to read an entire book on a computer screen? It can be done, but the low resolution of the screen slows you down and can even give you monster headaches.) The only question is whether they are able to make displays larger than one inch. If they can, the digital book is just around the corner!

I can see the device already, 4x6 inches, the size of a paperback, a few navigation buttons at the bottom for turning pages. It would actually open like a book and you could put it in your pocket. Download dozens of books at a time, and when you are done with them, just flash it and dump some more! You could even subscribe to a newspaper and have it downloaded into your digital book every day! Same with magazines. Connect it to a PCS or cellular modem and you can get to the whole library, no matter where you are. A true information appliance!

If somebody isn't working on this already, they are all slackers!

Vince