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Limitless applications seen for micro-projector
June 03, 2004A Finland-based company has unveiled ground-breaking optical technology allowing the manufacture of a matchbox-sized video projector. The results could be used in environments ranging from airplanes to nightclubs, living rooms to boardrooms, car dashboards to campsites.
Billed as "the world's smallest colour video projector," this inexpensive battery-operated projector paves the way for a variety of futuristic devices. A pocket video player could be integrated with a mobile phone or a laptop omputer, allowing projection onto a wall while surfing the internet or making a PowerPoint presentation.
"We're excited about the opportunities of our technology," says Mikko Alasaarela, President of Upstream Engineering. "It takes away one of the largest obstacles to mass-market mobile video, that is, large display in a small device."
Upstream reports brisk international interest in the product. There has been heavy international traffic on the firm's website, and inquiries from major electronics firms and the auto industry. Carmakers are interested in using the technology to project displays onto car windshields.
Based in the northern Finnish city of Oulu, Upstream Engineering developed the optoelectronic technology with research funding from Tekes.
"We discovered several technologies that provided a new perspective on projector manufacturing, set up the company and filed patent applications," says Alasaarela. The firm now has four international patents pending. Upstream is now in the prototyping phase. The first products based on the technology will be available next year.
Over the next three years, the company pledges to cut the device's size down to that of a matchbox - and consumption to that offered by mobile phone batteries.
The device is based on photon vacuum technology, which collects the photons from a light source with maximum efficiency and in the smallest space. This enables it to provide crisp colour projection of the size of a travel TV with battery-operated power consumption.
"A key difference from the existing equipment is that you don't need a lot of expensive optic components," says Alasaarela. This means a lower cost for the projector.
Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation
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