Laser, Laser on the Wall: MicroVision's Microprojector

I’m at the Globalpress conference in San Francisco and am listening to a presentation by Alexander Tokman, CEO of MicroVision. He’s discussing and demonstrating an amazing module that projects video on any available surface. The company’s PicoP display engine employs three semiconductor lasers (red, green, blue) and a MEMS 2-axis scanning mirror to project better-than-standard-definition video (854×480 pixels). Because it uses lasers as light sources, the projected image is pretty bright although a darkened room is definitely required, as with nearly any projection technology. Also, there are no lenses in the device so the image is instantly in focus no matter the distance to the projection screen. The module itself is already small enough to fit into a cell phone, and will shrink further in the future. It consumes 1.5W. Target cost for the display module is $100. Target products include cell phones, laptops, and PDAs. Very cool technology.