On the left, the 'thin mint' PicoP unveiled at CES in January. On the right, the 'thin mint widescreen' unveiled at SID in May, with 4 times the viewing area. Less than 5 months development time to achieve significant improvements in image size and quality.
Thin is in! Our thin mint size allows PicoP to be embedded directly inside of high volume consumer electronics where competitors' products can't fit.
Nice to see this comparison, Ben. What comments have you received regarding color quality? Can the PicoP - in terms of color - be adjusted (RGB) to resemble a conventional VGA/XVGA projection? I get the sense laser-based colors tend toward warm or hot - or deeper and richer than what we're used to seeing. Is this the case?
ReplyDeleteAwesome!
ReplyDeleteSimply amazing. Kudos to everyone at Microvision.
ReplyDeleteI've been wondering, will the color eyewear be wired or wireless? wireless would be more convenient and less "hey, why is there a wire behind you ear?", but brings up issues of charging batteries and lagging video.
ReplyDeleteThe colors are definitely exaggerated and does not reproduce the real colors. This is fancy on the first look, but will be a technical defect in the long run.
ReplyDeleteHow to you compete with Oio in the standalone space when they have smaller form factor, 1300 lumens, and lasts for two hours, using LED which does not have safety issue, and faster to market? With only 22 employees.
The images looks out of focus and not as sharp as expected. Hope this is due to the camera not PicoP. Look like a lot of speckle in the car image.
ReplyDeleteUh... I looked up the Oio, and it doesn't look any smaller than the PicoP. Also, LEDs have safety issues too. Staring into an LED will make you go blind too.
ReplyDeleteYou can't see laser speckle through a photograph. So obviously what you are seeing in the photograph isn't "speckle".
ReplyDeletePeople seem to forget this is a going to be a projected image coming out of a cell phone. This isn't going to replace your HDTV. And for the purpose of the embedded cell phone application, and what is really is and what it is really intended for ... all those who have seen it first hand say the quality of the PicoP is WAY good enough.
The embedded is going have to compete with standalone. If standalone can offer HDTV quality image, 2 hour run time, small form factor, and will work with cell phone, pc, game console, DVD, then buying a standalone makes more sense than embedded.
ReplyDeleteThe color problem is not something that can't be fixed. Why has it not been fixed yet? The images looks like catoons instead of real video images.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like cartoons because it IS cartoons. They use brightly colored images for demonstration because human eyes like bright colors and they want to impress the investors. And 2 hour run time isn't that impressive. My cell phone can give me 4 hours of constant talking out of a battery about the thickness of two credit cards. And that's doing power guzzling radio operations.
ReplyDeleteI didn't say 2 hour is impressive. I just mean that it is good enough considering the 1300 lumen output. The image does not reproduce original colors, not even close.
ReplyDelete"I visited the Explay booth at SID. Though I wish them well, I don't believe that Explay offers any serious competition to Microvision's PicoP at present. The images I saw from the Explay demo units were quite dim, grainy (speckle) and had visible SDE (screen door effect), a visible pixel"
ReplyDeleteThis is from someone who took the time to check out mvis and explay's tech.
Thanks for the information. Companies always hype their products. One has to see it to believe it.
ReplyDeleteBen, Have you seen this??
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ericsson.com/ericsson/corpinfo/publications/telecomreport/archive/2007/january/gadgets.shtml
Kitty:
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with you with respect to the wireless option. Now that would truly be spectacular. I think that from a technical perspective, this will become very doable within the next few years.
With regard to speed, Bluetooth version 2.0 has speeds up to 2.1Mbit/s and 3.0 is looking to extend up to 480Mbit/s.
In terms of battery life, that is currently quite an issue. Currently, battery life just plain stinks. Having to charge your color eyewear every 2 hours of use just won't cut it for a device you are continually using all day. There are some new technologies coming out that may be able to help out with this though. There are ultracapacitor batteries, that have about the same density as Li-ion, but can be recharged very quickly. Additionally, there is also Orbo, a new technology from the Irish company Steorn, which if proven, could provide perpetual energy. They will be doing a public demo for the 4th of July, so be sure to check out their website www.steorn.com.
Even if you had to do the wired approach, it would still be very impressive technology that everybody would jump all over. I DO believe that Color Eyewear type of technology will come out eventually, but I really think that it will be at least another 7 years or so until it hits the market. It is radically cool technology, but I think it is just to far away. What are your thoughts Ben?
well i can tell you wireless transfer is right around the corner, there are several companies now producing HDMI wireless transmitters that can send a 1080p at 60 frames per second video to a TV wirelessly using HDMI 1.3. These devices are quite affordable and very possible to implement into a visor using pico p, in terms of battery that is also more than possible right now, but it's all down to cost. Once the picop has been embedded into cell phones the laser technology will drop in price and then affordable visors will be released. Target that Mvis is going for is late 2008, 2009, for a full human visual field of view visor.
ReplyDelete@Jonathan: Orbo, huh? I'm always skeptical of technology that claims to break the fundamental laws of physics as we know them. There's always the possibility that they've discovered a yet unknown law of nature... but usually they're just hoaxes.
ReplyDelete@Ben: Another question. Would it be possible to imbed one or more cameras into the eyewear for the tracking of fiducial markers?
Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteNice try.
On the other hand, WiTricity offers the same freedom from constant recharging, without breaking the first law of thermodynamics.
ReplyDelete(http://www.mit.edu/%7Esoljacic/wireless_power.html)
Of course, they don't expect a practical prototype for several years.
Thanks much for an awesome sight. Best pictures I have ever seen. Great job. My thanks to all the staff. Go Microvision!
ReplyDeleteLighttrader1,
ReplyDelete=D
The reason why the pictures are out of focus is most likely due to camera focusing on the speckle instead of the image itself. Try it again using manual focus. It should come out better.
ReplyDeleteSorry to put cold water on your head. The pictures are out of focus, color tint is way out of line and grainy looking in the car picture. Is it about time we get some quality work from MVIS? Another $34 million to burn and possiblly another $35 million in the shelve. Products get delayed again and again. When can we end all the hype and release a real product?
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the pic showing the charts you see the same thing. Are you saying the charts need to be improved? Hmmm?
ReplyDeleteOh, for the love...
ReplyDeleteLook at the bloody foreground! The table with the projector on it is ALSO grainy! So unless you're saying that the projector is projecting it's own table (which would be an awesome feature) it's the PHOTO that's grainy, not the damn projector!
good point kitty
ReplyDeleteBasically the jist I've gotten from people who have seen it in real life say the quality isn't perfect and it won't be replacing your HDTV any time soon ...... but when you consider it is a projection coming from a tiny cell phone and what the application is far it GREATLY exceeds the quality requirments and is quite an amazing sight, when put in the proper context.
ReplyDeleteIf they improve the quality, people /might/ actually use it to replace their HDTV. It would certainly be cheaper to ship. And you can't beat the price per square inch.
ReplyDeleteI want to watch everything in 3D! Bens eyewear will be the Holy Grail. HD TV is nothing compared to HD in 3D. No?
ReplyDeleteI'll give you that. Actually, the theoretical limit on the resolution of the Color Eyewear is higher than that of the human eye. Now THAT'S high def.
ReplyDeleteJonathan,
ReplyDeleteWRT wireless glasses, I would expect that the battery life on the glasses would be much improved over the standalone.
Of course it all depends on the battery capacity, but the laser power in the retinal scanning app will be MUCH, MUCH lower power than the embedded or standalone.
I would expect that the lasers will ultimately be the biggest power drain of the picop. The mirror's gotta be nothing in comparison, and the should be really low too.
whats amazing about this tech is right now at a technology stand point the picop is perfect for small viewing things, like tabletop viewing on the move, say you want to want a movie on the train, plane etc etc
ReplyDeleteBut where it will really shine is in color eyewear because the picture can be a lot smaller and brighter, clear and super sharp which will make it a new contender that will not be beaten for a long time in the virtual reality head mounted display market.
Sounds good! Where can I buy it and when? Sometime in 2009?
ReplyDelete