Hands-on: Miniature LCOS Laser Picoprojector Is As Big As A Matchbox

This amazing little projector, OEMed by XDM, a part of Explay in Japan, is truly something to behold. Smaller than a matchbox – it’s about an inch on each side – it pumps out an unspeckled 14 lumens image in full color at about 800 pixels on the top side. It small enough to fit in the upper corner of almost any phone and the aperture is so tiny it’s almost unnoticeable. And guess what? XDM is making it smaller.

The rig they showed me was fairly bulky but they’re currently working on an ASIC controller chip that will reduce all of the circuitry to a few square centimeters. The are also working on a 20 lumens model as well as a smaller model that is half the size of the current system.

XDM will OEM these parts and they currently have a number of folks interested. Expect picoprojectors to really take off in the next few months as these hit market, especially considering you can stick these things into almost any device including cellphones, cameras, and laptops.



Explay starts shipping laser pico-projector modules to customers, expects products in Feb 2011
Laser Projector camera Projector phone
Explay says that their laser pico-projector module has started shipping to customers. They expect product that include the projector (mainly phones and cameras) to start appearing on February 2011. The projector supports WVGA (854x480), 14 lumens and up to 70" projections. The total volume is 6.3cc, and the height is 7mm (a bit larger than Microvision's PicoP which is 5cc). The module consumes 1.8W (1.3w for the light-engine and 0.5w for the control circuit).


Explay is also working on two next-gen products, that will be available towards the end of 2011. The first will be pretty much the same module, but with 20 lumens. The second will support WXGA (1366x768) at 25 lumens.