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Laser-Tech Firms Aim to Bring Slide-Show Capability to Cellphones
By ROGER CHENG
January 25, 2007

For people who can't resist showing off their family-vacation photos, the development of new high-tech lasers may allow cellphones to project pictures and videos on the wall like an old-fashioned slide show.

Business users might also find such a cellphone feature handy, enabling them to project a PowerPoint slide presentation or videos onto a large, flat surface.

Microvision Inc. unveiled a working prototype of the tiny projector at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this month in what it hopes to be a lucrative new business for the maker of scanning technology. The company plans to sell a projector that plugs into small devices like handsets by mid-2008. Cellphones with embedded projectors will be available by the end of that year, it says.

Microvision's PicoP projector will add about $100 to the price of a cellphone. It is expected to be able to run at least one to 1 ½ hours on a handset's normal battery charge. While Microvision is talking to several top handset makers, no deals have been struck yet.

One of its key features, dubbed infinite focus, allows the projector to display a clear image from two feet to 10 feet away on various makeshift screens, including curved or distorted surfaces. Images range from the size of a large laptop screen, or 30 inches diagonally, to the size of today's jumbo plasma-screen televisions reaching 100 inches or so. Despite the variation in size, Microvision says the laser projectors keep the images clear.

While this could mean big business for Microvision and other projector makers, it remains in the developmental stage. Insight Media, a Norwalk, Conn., market-research firm focused on the display industry, projects sales will increase to nearly five million units by 2009 as costs drop. That figure could jump to nearly 15 million by 2011.

Microvision isn't the only company working on tiny projectors. Others include Motorola Inc.'s Symbol Technologies unit and Israel's Explay Ltd.

"The goal is to provide mobile users with a large screen anywhere," said Alexander Tokman, chief executive of Microvision, of Bothell, Wash. He said the market could be huge if it could capture a sliver of the market for high-end cellphones.

Nokia Corp. and Sony Ericsson, a joint venture between Sony and Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson, have projected industry handset sales well above one billion this year, with high-end phones, including Apple Inc.'s recently unveiled iPhone, expected to be among the fastest-growing segments.

Whether consumers will see the need for projectors in their hand-held devices is still untested. "It's one of these cases that if they build it, they'll hope they'll come," said Chris Chinnock, president of Insight Media. "Consumers don't know about this. This clearly could be a big hit, but it could be a big flop."

Microvision is talking with four of the top five handset makers about the projector. "The cellphone companies have been looking for solutions, but no one has been able to make the display technology," Mr. Tokman said.

The difficulty lies in producing full-color images, which require a projector with lasers that use three colors -- red, blue and green. While much work has been done on developing red and blue lasers, which are already being utilized, there has been less progress on green-laser technology. Without a source of green, no images could be shown in their true color.

Enter companies such as Corning Inc., of Corning, N.Y.; Germany's Osram GmbH; and Novalux Inc., of Sunnyvale, Calif., which all are developing green lasers. Corning is using technology based on its experience in the telecommunications-equipment business.

"The foundation of our approach was to use technology we developed in the telecom phase for creating high-powered infrared light used for telecom components," said David Charlton of Corning, who is in charge of developing early-stage technology projects that could lead to new businesses. He calls green lasers the "keystone component" to a true projector.

Companies are exploring the use of lasers because alternatives -- such as light-emitting diodes -- are less accurate and consume more power. The green laser Corning is developing converts electrical power to light more efficiently, Mr. Charlton said. The idea of projecting images has been around for a while, but the problem of power consumption has been a hurdle for the adoption of the technology into smaller devices.

Corning is currently demonstrating its green laser to consumer-electronics companies and original-equipment manufacturers to get a sense of the demand for a projector. It is likely a manufacturer would bundle the green laser with the red and blue ones from other suppliers to create a projector.

In addition to including the devices in cellular phones or personal digital assistants, the companies envision small projectors in cars for heads-up displays on the windshield or in digital cameras.

# posted by Broker A @ 9:00 AM