Tech Convergence Will Spur Demand for New ADAS Technology

Thoughts on SID

Hi everyone,

Well, I'm back in the office after a pretty incredible time at SID. Our booth was packed for three straight days and I got to meet a lot our investors, partners, suppliers as well as customers and potential customers. I had hoped to post some updates from the show floor or back in the hotel but my schedule was pretty well packed.

It's a thrill to see so many people experience our technology for the first time -- the response to what we're doing was truly phenomenal. I had the opportunity to meet with a few of our shareholders and it was really great to see their delight at our PicoP-based products and all the excitement around the company that was clearly evident.

The new wide-angle PicoP projector got a tremendous response. We had it positioned side by side with the CES PicoP unveiled in January, and it was the equivalent of going from a 19" to a big screen TV; all of this still being projected from something so tiny and thin that it can fit in sleek contemporary mobile devices. The new PicoP has four times the viewing area from the same distance from a surface, enabling a BIG viewing experience from tiny, thin devices -- wherever, whenever.

We demonstrated our full-color, daylight-readable, see-through helmet mounted display, as well as our automotive HUD, and there was a ton of interest in how it all worked -- the science of laser scanning displays, the performance characteristics, as well as the business opportunities they enable.

Regarding eyewear, I can tell you we're very encouraged about our technical path and I look forward to talking some more about this coming up before too long.

It's great to be home, and it's great timing for a holiday weekend!

Comments

  1. Great job Ben. Have a long, restfull, well-deserved weekend with the family. Get your ass back to work early on Tuesday.

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  2. Ben,

    Could you comment on the speckle problem that some investors saw at SID reported. Does MVIS has any plans to reduce it? Does speckle problem show up in HUD and eyeware as well? How can Novalux claim their laser is speckle free when we have a serious speckle problem? Don't think PicoP will be successful without fixing the speckle problem first. Have not seen any methods that can completely fix the speckle problem.

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  3. Thanks for your comment. What you are referring to is the appearance of glistening within the image of PicoP when it is shined on certain types of surfaces at certain angles and distances.

    We continue to progress our image quality and performance of PicoP products; our unveiling at SID of our new wide angle scanner with 4 times the viewing area as the original PicoP introduced just 5 months ago will attest to this. Our market research and direct customer feedback informs us that glisten will not inhibit the adoption of PicoP for our targeted applications. In fact, the people that saw PicoP at SID were astonished by the infinite focus, deep rich colors, and large image size, coming from such a tiny and thin, low power device. It is an experience you need to see for yourself -- then you can perhaps more accurately gauge its market potential for its targeted applications (ie, mobility).

    As I mentioned, this effect is projection surface-dependent and so certain materials such as cotton t-shirts completely eliminate glisten. There is no glisten in Eyewear, HMD or HUD due the optics that are used to channel and direct the image to the viewer.

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  4. Ben,

    Thanks for the response. But why Novalux people are talking about using 35 emitters in order to reduce speckle. PicoP might be using just one emitter. Why would they talk down their own product?

    http://www.digitaltvdesignline.com/showArticle.jhtml?printableArticle=true&articleId=196603470

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  5. This is a scientific article about laser TV published a year and a half ago. You'd have to ask the authors, I can't speak to it.

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  6. Ben,
    The article was published in Dec 6-8, 2006, which is less than six month ago. They were trying to promote Novalux laser.

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  7. Just because they claim that they use 35 emitters to reduce speckle, doesn't mean that that's the real reason they have 35 emitters, or that "speckles" are even a real problem. Milk is advertised as being "Vitamin D enriched" because vitamin D is a side effect of pasteurization. Unless you live in Alaska, your body produces enough vitamin D on it's own. They probably use 35 emitters because they couldn't figure out how to do it with just one. Remember, you have to pay for the additional 34 emitters, not to mention having to power them and deal with the extra waste heat. If I have the choice between a $500 dollar phone with a 20 minute battery that burns a hole in my pocket but never "speckles" or a $100 phone with a 4 hour battery that I can just point at something else to eliminate "speckles"... Guess which one I'm going to buy.

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