Maybe, but I can think of a lot of consumer applications for it like Christmas type things to show on the side of your house, cheap toy projectors to take the place of those $20 laser crab type devices. I think that if you can get that technology under $50 bundled in with a 5mw laser diode then it will be hot items at christmas time.
They already have those sound cards on a USB stick. It would only take a slight modification to turn that into a DAC that could drive it. You could put the entire laser scanner in a golf ball sized device. Maybe add a microcontroller with SD RAM and you have a projector that you can put in your pocket. Perfect for raves, etc.
Sure, the quality would suck but for those applications it doesn't matter. Besides, the quality is bound to improve.
What tickles me is the pic of the kids projecting an image onto a white T shirt & white paper here
http://www.microvision.com/pico_proj.../embedded.html
are we to beleive with an RGB device you can create black!!!?...I think that has been posted a couple of months early. Repost on 1st April.
Rob
If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
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Hi Gary,
You misunderstood me I guess. I was talking about the Microvision guys that produce a raster image (resonant scanner), not the Mirorcle guys. The Mirorcle guys are indeed vector. Yes, this exists but it is VERY expensive (at least for now), and also having a VERY small mirror.
Attached is the picture of the little laser sign project we worked on back in 2002. This was taken at the GlobalShop trade show in 2003 if memory serves...
Best regards,
William Benner
oh oh..
When I see the picture from 2002.
I suddenly want to try make my own little "flat-screen" back projector RGB TV
That is pretty easy actually..
Just mount the scanner as a hidden table, some mirrors back and then up and then on the screen....
and voila you got a big LASER TV
but veeery simple texture :P
Any laser and projector would be shattered at a NITRO top fuel dragster competition.(If youve ever been to one you'd know) The mirroracle people propose x-y axes with only 1 mirror, (lousy) and.. If we wait a little bit, Mitsu says their laser 50" TV will be out this month with a couple of watts per RGB..The 'module' may be avail in a couple of years.. but of course.. at the rate technology is progressing, all kids will have a RGB cell-phone projector at that rate, but wait... Uncle Sam and the CDRH may have something to say about that...
Hey Rob - LOL.. yeah, and to add to that, if you were ACTUALLY SEEING THAT MUCH 'atmopheric' laser-light coming from those devices, in SUN-induced room-light, with zero fog/dust - both that paper AND that kids' BACK would be on FIRE!!! It would take many, many, Watts (like 15+, my estimate) to produce that much VISIBLE atmospheric 'projection' in such a bright, 'clean' environment...
At least they could have done a better 'fake' by superimposing REAL video projections, so they weren't projecting BLACK, like you said... "Repost on 1st April." - LOL...
- J
....and armed only with his trusty 21 Zorgawatt KTiOPO4...
If the current Mirrorcle devices do not feature it, there is certainly scope for optical or capacitative position detection and closed-loop feedback, in which case the scanner could be driven much faster. Obviously large mirrors are required for high power or large beams, but the tiny circular mirror has an big inertia advantage over conventional galvanometers for tiny projectors of complex vectors!
Kind regards,
sonaluma
Last edited by sonaluma; 01-04-2008 at 21:17.
If you need to ask the question 'whats so good about a laser' - you won't understand the answer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Laserists do it by the nanometre.
Stanwax Laser is a Corporate Member of Ilda
Stanwax Laser main distributor of First Contact in UK - like us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/FirstContactPolymerCleaner
www.photoniccleaning.co.uk
I once saw a XGA laser projector (1024x768) at ITEC in germany. It was produced by Rheinmetall. ITEC is an exhibition for all round simulation technology, so they used it for a flight simulator.
The cool thing about this thing was that they had an RGB and IR unit next to each other. With this, you could 'fly' at night while you could only see small simulated lights from houses and the airport. If you however put on the Gen3 NVG goggles, then you could see a clear NVG image. Later on, they also showed the daylight picture of the same scene, and the brightness and sharpness was incredible. Much better then any other XGA lcd/dlp/lcos out there.
Of course, the disadvantages are the price (+30k$) and the size of the projector. Something like a 1x1x1 meter box if i remember correctly.