3M and TI present pico projector at CES

In early November last year we reported on the pico projector from Microvosion. At the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas 3M and Texas Instruments presented their tiny projectors. Enormous market potential of the devices is in prospect.

3M pico projector

According to the manufacturer, the projector provides a brilliant image in VGA resolution up to a diagonal of 40 inch. 3M uses the LCoS (Liquid Crystal on Silicone) technology. While LCD projectors use transmissive LCD chips, allowing light to pass through the liquid crystal, in LCoS, liquid crystals are applied directly to the surface of a silicon chip coated with a highly reflective aluminized layer.

3M pico projector

At 3M they are particularly proud for the fact that the technology is available now. With existing partner companies 3M expects the first projector-equipped mobile phones in early 2008.

TI pico projector
Texas Instruments showed at CES an improved version of its pico projector prototype. Based on the TI developed DLP technology the device fits into a mobile phone dummy in the size of an iPhone. TI sees first applications in mobile devices in the course of this year.

TI pico projector

Microvision pico projector
Technical facts of the Microvision projector were posted by us in November.
Microvision showed at CES the first prototype of an independent pico projector unit in the size of an iPod Classic with WVGA resolution. Under the code name "show" the unit was presented to the public. The internal battery allows an operation time of up to 2.5 hours. The projector should hit the consumer market by the end of 2008.

Microvision pico projector (youtube video)

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Displays getting thinner and thinner

A major trend is visible at the ongoing Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas - all renowned Plasma- and LCD-screen manufacturers are presenting very thin devices.

New lighting method of LCD screens

According to JVC, technical innovations in back lighting of the LC display brought this remarkable reduction in depth. With the help of new light-diffusion layers, the fluorescent tubes move closer to the LCD screen. Detailed information at gizmodo.com

Conventional LCD compared to the new, slim version

At CES all major display manufacturers showed new LC displays in the range of 20 to 40mm thickness. Both the weight and power consumption should therefore also be reduced. The integration into a wall should get much easier in future.

Also Plasma-screens getting thinner
Pioneer presented a just 9mm thick plasma screen at CES. In the middle section the concept device is a bit thicker with 18mm. There is no launch date for this device till now.

The 9mm plasma-screen study by Pioneer

More pictures at gizmodo.com

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Innovative energy sources

With today's increasing mobile multimedia devices in our everyday life and the need for mobile energy sources is growing. With innovative energy sources, the growing future demand should be solved.

The trend is towards mobile devices that become lighter and smaller, but their need for power increases. As a result, the demand for high capacity mobile energy sources increase. Alternative energy sources to today's batteries are on the way to the market. Further development of the battery technology should bring more power, longer life cycles and shorter charging times by a smaller volume.

Fuel cell

Some big technology companies perform intense research work for the use of fuel cells as energy supply of small electrical appliances such as laptops, mobile phones and MP3 players. Advantages are the high energy capacity compared with today's batteries, and the rapid refilling of the tanks to the long recharging time of the batteries.

fuel cell from a cell phone gets refilled

SCiB (Super-Charge-ion-Battery)
In March 2008 Toshiba will launch a battery which reloads within 5 minutes 90% of its capacity and loses only 10% of their capacity after 3000 charging cycles. In future mobile multimedia devices could be completely independent from permanent power sources because they could get recharged quickly at a specific energy station.

SCiB (Super-Charge-ion-Battery) by Toshiba

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Novel remote control concepts

In future the remote control could loose its conventional look - a rectangular block with buttons or touch screens. New approaches subject intuitive controls and novel design language.

History of the remote control

The invention of the remote control goes back to the 1950s. In 1956 the first wireless ultrasonic remote control was on the market. Today's remote controls are primarily based on the infrared and radio-transmission technology. But the basic shape of the remote control remained since its invention virtually unchanged.

the Space Command by Zenith from 1956

There are, however, in addition to the development of the "classical" approach, new concepts for the design of remote controls. Some are now presented here.

An apple as a remote control
According to the study by Jason Roebuck, the remote control could get the shape of apple. The control is done primarily done through motion gestures. A rotating movement should tune the volume of a TV, for example.

the apple remote control by Jason Roebuck

In addition, the study design intends that any person in a household has its own remote control, each adapted to individual needs. The matching "fruit bowl" for the apples will also act as a charging station.

the apples in their charging station

A cube as a remote control
A very similar approach was presented early 2007 by Telekom Austria in cooperation with Austria Research Centers. As control element a cube without any keys is used. By turning, tilting or shaking all common control signals are transmitted to a TV. When the cube is placed in the holder, the TV is on standby.

the Cube by Telekom Austria

A porcelain bowl as a remote control
The study of Yuta Watanabe doesn’t forego on buttons, but the form and material is novel. With the use of ceramics a high quality and fragile material was chosen deliberately to ad a higher value to the remote control. Beyond that the rounded shape makes the remote control to a subject of decoration.

porcelain bowl remote control by Yuta Watanabe

A bracelet as a remote control
Chloe Fung designed a remote control specifically for women. .She built the control of the so-called Orbit Remote in a bracelet.

the Orbit Remote by Chloe Fung

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360° display - digital advertising pillar

A digital advertising pillar comes from the German company KinotonPotential applications of the display should be found in the digital signage field in public areas.

Technology
The Litefast display consists of a glass cylinder and four aluminium bars with 3 LED strips in the colours red, green and blue. The aluminium bars with the LEDs on them rotate in this inner cylinder with a speed that allows them to be not seen by the human eye. The LEDs are controlled to light up at the same point all the time. This allows a display with about 16 million colours.

Construction of a Litefast displays

Advantages compared to flat displays are energy savings, as only twelve LED strips are used. 189 inch screens at small stand space are possible. With the transparency interesting visual effects are possible.

Critical issues
The viewer watches the cylinder with a frontal view. He sees a rectangle on which sides the horizontal pixels accumulate and so the image is distorted. Because of this more than a half of the screen is useless to the spectator. Consistently high luminosity with low power consumption because of the few LEDs is an argument, but I suspect that for the rotation a lot of energy is needed.

Litefast in use (youtube video)

Application scenarios
The display could be used in railway stations, airports, service companies, adventure and theme parks, museums and exhibitions, retail, cinema and theatre, and in the hospitality industry. In my opinion, the main application will take part at trade fairs and exhibitions. Here the unusual shape of the display will bring a lot of attention.

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Tactile touch screen by Nokia

Nokia presented the so-called Haptikos system, the first tactile touch screen. The haptic feedback on this touch screen supposed to be quite similar to a normal keyboard.

The technology behind the system is quite simple. There are two piezoelectric sensor plates arranged behind the display. The display itself is additionally equipped with a free movement of 0.1 mm. The fine-tuning of the system proved to be the largest challenge, as it was the feeling of a real key stroke to be exactly reconstructed.

the Haptikos system on a Nokia N770 internet tablet

A journalist from the Red Ferret Journal was able to get the hand on the system installed on a Nokia N770 internet tablet. He was very impressed by the effect. The feeling on the touch screen is indeed like on a real keyboard.
Nokia plans to introduce the tactile touch screens with its new S60 series in the year 2008.

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New challenges for the office of the future

A series of sometimes curious design studies subjects acoustics, privacy and concentration suggest, that the need for effective solutions is growing necessary. The tendency to open office spaces enhances this need.

Telephone calls on the mobile phone, whether privately or work related or the communication with colleagues compulsorily intensifies the noise level in open office layouts. Respect for privacy and the possibility for concentrated work require new concepts. First trials brought quite curious solutions.

For example, the study Pentaphone of the Austrian designer Robert Stadler should facilitate calls with the mobile phone in the office. The mobile phone makes his call without being disturbed by ambient noise as well as others are not disturbed by his communication.

Pentaphone study by Robert Stadler

Another curiosity is the so-called Office Collar. With this gadget the field of visual distractions will be reduced. The Office Collar should help the user to focus on direct tasks in front of him.

The Office Collar by Simone Brewster

Even large office furniture manufacturer dealt with the issues acoustics and privacy in the workplace. From Steelcase there are some design studies for the year 2005.

Cell Cell by Steelcase

With the concept of "Cell Cell", a cylinder hanging from the ceiling was shown. Crawling beneath it you can make an undisturbed phone call. Even a short confidential stand up meeting is possible.

Digital Yurt by Steelcase

The Digital Yurt is a space for undisturbed brainstorming in the mid zone of the office. The center features a circular pad of paper table which allows everyone to write notes for capturing thoughts and ideas.

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Flexible plasma display

Early in October on the Japanese electronics fair Ceatec the idea of a novel plasma displays was presented. It is just one millimeter thick and pliable. With this technology any display size should be possible in the near future.

The plasma tube array display of Japan's leading plasma display researcher Tsutae Shinoda is unlike a conventional plasma display consisting of many individual gas cells. It is made of gas-filled thin tubes, arranged between two electrode plates.

At the fair a 50 by 100cm prototype display was demonstrated with just 800g in weight. Shinoda promises that basic panels of 1 by 2 meters are “glued” together frameless to any larger size displays in future. According to the displayblog the mass production should beginn in the second half of 2008.

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Innovations in keyboard design

The evolution of traditional input devices continues. The Russian design studio Art Lebedev is going to launch the first keyboard with variable OLED displays by the end of the year. Another approach focuses on the flexible arrangement of the keys.

Optimus Maximus, the russian interface
Every single button of Optimus Maximus is replaceable, has its own OLED display and can be used with different functions, such as letters, symbols or icons for special function buttons. The OLED with a resolution of 48 by 48 pixels displays the actual key function.

Optimus Maximus by Art Lebedev (youtube Video)

A great advantage is, that the key adapts to the respective program, which runs on the computer, and so work should be done faster and easier. Each user can adjust the keys to their individual needs and working patterns. But there are also some critical aspects of this product. First, compared with normal keyboards, despite the use of OLED technology, there is higher energy consumption (it requires a separate power supply). Form an ergonomic view the keyboard could act as a disturbing light source in the visual area of the user.

Ergodex DX1, even the position gets individually
A slightly different keyboard system offers the Ergodex DX1 keyboard. The keys don’t have displays, but the function of up to 50 keys could be defined individually. For each key you could choose the position on a special plate.

In the delivery contents are predefined or writable stickers for each key. With the free distribution of the keys a maximum ergonomic arrangement should be possible. Initial tests of this keyboard came to a conclusion, that the Ergodex DX1 is more a complement to existing keyboard, not a replacement.

Ergodex DX1 keyboard

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Eclipse a future workspace

The new things at the workstation called Eclipse designed by Marcus Ward Curran are the wings. The workstation has four of them on both sides, left and right. They can be moved individually and offer the possibility to separate a part or the whole workspace. The user is able to create and protects his personal space.

The complete station is on wheels. In the overhead bar there are speakers, a camera and lightings. The inner side of the wings should work as screens for video conferencing or should create a relaxing atmosphere.

video at youtube.

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Pico projector

A projector made for flexible applications. The projector is smaller than 4 centimetres and could be integrated into future mobile phones. Future versions will be able to project images in the size of a TV screen.

Construction of a pico projector

Microvisions pico projector is made of four parts: the MEMS (Micro-Electronic-Mechanic-System) scanner, a red, green and blue laser beam, a special optical system and electronics. The electronics receives the signal, processes it, controls the colour mixture and the position of each pixel and controls the MEMS-Scanner. Each pixel is made up by combining the three laser beams. The intensity of each beam can be adjusted to create a big variety of colours and grey scales. The scanning MEMS scanner controls these multicolour radiation and successions and sends them line by line to their position to creating a complete picture.

MEMS-mirror,laserbeam,optic, electronics.

A very similar technique is used in the Texas Instruments DLP-projectors.

Scope

The big advantage is the mobility of this projector. You can present photos of a camera or a mobile phone to friends or work colleagues via projection onto a white wall, or you can watch a movie during a train ride.

Challenge

Red lasers are used in any CD drive, the blue laser in the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives, so the procurement of this two is not very difficult. But green laser yet has not been produced for industrial use and was therefore difficult in matching the size and producing the number of units to have a sensible price. This problem has now been solved. The actual challange is to replace the still expensive laser trough cheaper LEDs.

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Multi-touch interface - Microsoft Surface

With the planned introduction early 2008 Microsoft fosters the final breakthrough of a special variant of human-machine interaction - the so-called multi-touch interface. An intuitive digital data handling seems to be possible.

History of the multi-touch interfaces
Research in multi-touch systems is done since the early 1980s. In various research layouts at universities and major corporations the technology was developed. According to Microsoft, the first Surface prototypes were put in an Ikea table in 2001. Since then, about 80 more prototypes of the Surface were built. A very good overview of the historical development stages shows the site of Bill Buxton.

Structure of the Microsoft Surface
It uses a standard PC with Microsoft Vista, five infrared sensors and a DLP-projector, which projects the picture from the bottom of the table. With the infrared sensors the touching is registered. Further details about the technical design at popularmechanics.

technical structure of the Microsoft Surface

Unlike a conventional touch-screen, Surface recognizes the movements of several fingers. Therefore several people can work at the same time on the Microsoft Surface. Microsoft calls this feature "Multi-User Experience". Using "Object Recognition" the Surface recognizes items placed on it.
The system is equipped with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, to exchange data with mobile phones or digital cameras. In future, RFID or NFC should also be in use.

the Surface as an interface for data exchange of mobile devices (youtube video)

Initial applications
Microsoft delivers the Surface early 2008 only to business customers like casinos or hotels. At T-Mobile USA the Surface should be used as a tool to support sales of mobile phones. The price will be in a range from 5,000 to 10,000 US dollars.

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