Tech Convergence Will Spur Demand for New ADAS Technology

Microvision SHOW PicoProjector on NBC KING 5 News

New projector you can carry in your pocket (Video)

January 3rd, 2008
Soon a new kind of laser projector could be as common as the cameras in cell phones. You could take it a party and show your vacation pictures on the wall. Glenn Farley reports on this laser projector designed by a local company for the consumer market.

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  1. Ben, looks like the Street.com (Cramer's site) is starting to get sweet on Microvision) -

    Games and Gadgets
    Looking Ahead to the CES
    By Tero Kuittinen
    RealMoney.com Contributor
    1/4/2008 11:24 AM EST
    URL: http://www.thestreet.com/p/rmoney/gamesa...

    I’ll be heading to Vegas this weekend for the biggest consumer electronics event of the year — the Consumer Electronics Show. This mammoth jamboree does not have a specific mobile handset focus, but phone biz is definitely a big chunk of CES. Some announcements — or lack thereof — may move share prices next week. Here are three questions I find compelling.

    Is a laser projector a high-end feature in smartphones in 2010?

    The mobile phone industry has been buzzing about miniature projection technology for years. Many have given up on the notion as one of those concepts that always seem to be two years away from the market. But recent advances in laser technology may have finally brought the idea to the cusp of commercialization.

    Microvision’s (MVIS) demo of its new laser projector is one of the hot tickets of the CES week — the Show stand-alone unit is a neat product — but the really interesting angle here is the potential of a module embedded in smartphones and laptops. Microvision has slimmed down the gadget to 7 mm. The laser projector does not need to be focused with lenses and can deliver vibrant, strong colors even on a wall a couple of feet away. Power consumption and price may be formidable hurdles, though.

    But the recent success of high-end models from Nokia N95 to LG KU990 clearly demonstrates that there is strong demand for luxury phones with cutting-edge photo/video/display technology. Five-megapixel technology and large touch screens will have been adopted by three to five leading vendors by the first quarter of 2008; the industry is hungry for new differentiating features.

    Camera quality and video capture tech can only be refined so far. Display real estate on the handset is reaching its maximum spread with nonflexible screens, as it now stretches across 80%-95% in cutting-edge models. An embedded miniature projector would open up a new front in the features arms race, and operators might be willing to subsidize these phones heavily because they could persuade consumers to download a lot more content. Much boils down to whether power consumption and price are finally decent.

    There’s plenty to watch for at the CES this year; I’ll be posting throughout next week on the trends to keep an eye on for 2008.

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  2. Hey Ben,

    Just wanted to leave you with something I read recently by William Gibson in "Spook Country".

    Pg. 64: "We're all doing VR, every time we look at a screen. We have been for decades now. We just do it. We didn't need the goggles, the gloves. It just happened. VR was an even more specific way we had of telling us where we were going. Without scaring us too much, right? The locative, though, lots of us are already doing it. But you can't just do locative with your nervous system. One day, you will. We'll have internalized the interface. It'll have evolved to the point that we forget about it. Then you'll just walk down the street...' He spread his arms , and grinned at her."

    It would seem to say that we as humans, in our effort to constantly describe our reality (books, blogs, movies, music, etc.), are "wetwired" for augmented reality and are just using whatever technological means that are at hand to do so.

    I found this to be a very interesting notion that holds tremendous potential. This whole idea coupled with the fact that people are getting more and more comfortable with the notion of a computer being a part of their everyday lives that makes us employees at Microvision "in the game" and at the forefront of a new technological precipice. An exciting time for you and I and the rest of the team for sure.

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  3. this is an exciting time indeed. our vision is one step closer to reality. wonderful report from King5.
    can anyone put this video on youtube so we can share this with more people?

    happy new Year.
    Frank

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