Researchers at the Optical Function Device Workshop at the National Institute of Technology, Sendai College, demonstrated unique screens using micro-optical elements for projection displays. The screen is a combination of directional diffused light-control film (DLC) with a micro-structured optical film. The screen directs the environment-scattered light to a direction that is different from that of the screen viewer. One is a directive screen using an array of CCR with diverted and curved surfaces (D-CCR), which reflects and scatters the light toward a certain angle: the viewer’s face. The screen has a gain of 16 and reflects extremely bright images even with small and low-power projections.
Filmed at the I-Zone demo and prototype area at SID Display Week, the world’s largest and best exhibition for electronic information display technology.
Display Week’s I-Zone, sponsored by E Ink, is a unique exhibition-within-the-exhibition filled with demos and prototypes from around the world. Every year, dozens of applicants submit their pre-market and emerging products to compete for a free booth where they can share their inventions with buyers, manufacturers, potential partners, industry leaders and thousands of attendees.
Aiptek is a leading Chinse manufacturer of Projectors ranging in prices from $50 to $1000. One interesting device from Aiptek is the APEX projector with a built in Windows PC that is modular and detachable. The Aiptek i70 is the world’s smallest wireless projector.
This is Epson’s best ultra short throw interactive FHD projector, generating up to a 100″ laser display at Full HD WUXGA resolution with Epson’s 0.67 inch with MLA (D10) 3LCD technology at 4000lumen, 2,500,000:1 Contrast Ratio, 20,000 Hours Durability.
Paul Gray is a Principal Analyst/Researcher within the IHS Technology group since November 2014, when IHS acquired DisplaySearch, a leader in primary research and forecasting on the global display market. At DisplaySearch, he served as director of European research. In addition to TVs, he also covered wearable devices, digital broadcast and semiconductor technology. He conducted in-depth analysis and forecasting of wearable devices, connected TV and 4K Ultra HD. Mr. Gray has more than 20 years of experience in market intelligence, marketing and product management. His work includes forecasting, product strategy, investment and R&D decisions. He has also been involved in consulting and conferences, and he has been cited as an expert in Nikkei, Los Angeles Times, Le Monde, Financial Times, The Korea Herald and other publications.
Optoma shows their next generation 4K DLP Laser Ultra Short Throw Projector Prototype, at 8-inches distance it generates over 100″ diagonal sized 4K image on the wall, 2300lumen, 2.000.000:1 contrast ratio, 0.25 throw ratio, HDR compatible. 25-thousand hours life due Laser solid state. It’s using the first generation 0.67″ 4K TI DLP chipset. They plan to release it around the end of Q2 2018 priced around $4000-6000.
World leader in 4K projectors, Optoma presents their lower cost UHD50 to make 4K Projection more accessible to the mass market. This one features 2x HDMI 2.0 ports, HDR10, 50% vertical lens shift, 1.3 zoom. 2400lumen while the UHD60 is 3000lumen, RGBRGB color wheel, 2 inches smaller, 2 pounds lighter. For $200 more, they are also shipping the UHD51A with the same features as the UHD50 but it also comes with Amazon Alexa support, an Ethernet port, it runs Optoma’s implementation of Android (not for installing apps, possibly for Google Assistant support also), USB Host port.
KDC USA presents their Laser Beam Pro C200 ($399 at Amazon.com) which they claim to be the World’s First and Only Class 1 Eye Safe Laser Projector, which also won the CES 2017 Innovation Award, it is world’s brightest portable laser projector. Class 1 laser with FDA approved Eye safe laser technology let you have Focus Free at all times, with 200 lumen brightness and built in Android powered OS. World’s smallest handheld computer laser projector that projects up to 150 inches with maximum 200 lumens and 768P HD resolution also built in with Android. With up to 120 minute battery life, it can play any contents from SD card or USB flash drive or to download and play any content directly onto the 8GB internal storage, stream videos on any Android app and websites, and users can enjoy better sound using a Bluetooth speaker or headphones, it can connect wirelessly to Android and iOS mobile devices and the user can use it with a keyboard and mouse. Filmed at the SID Display Week.
Cerevo is a company that was founded in 2008 that specializes in niche IOT products. Cerevo adds shoes to the virtual reality experience. The Shoes enable easier movement with VR applications. The shoes also enable a more tactile experience and can send sensations to your feet. The VR shoes should range from $800-$1200. The Cerevo Tipron projector is a Robot with a built in projector that moves around on wheals. The Projector robot costs $2299 and offers a display size of up to 80″ with 1280×720 resolution. The lumigent is a robotic voice activated desk lamp. Lumigent technology is integrated into other devices such as cameras, bicycles and other IOT applications.
Sony VPL-VW260ES is a 4K SXRD Projector currently being sold at €4999 in Europe. It uses Sony’s native 4K (4096 x 2160) SXRD panel technology, with 1,500 lumen brightness, HDR support. This video also features the €20’000 ultra short throw 4K Laser projector Sony VPL-VZ1000ES with 2500lumen and the €15’000 Sony VPL-VW760ES 4K SXRD Home Cinema Projector with laser light source, 2,000 lumen brightness, ∞:1 contrast and HDR compatibility.
BenQ presents their €4999 W11000 DLP 4K UHD home cinema projector, with THX HD Display Certification, cinematic image quality with absolute Rec. 709 color accuracy, 50,000:1 dynamic contrast, rivaling the picture quality of a commercial digital cinema. Producing 8.3 million distinct pixels for dazzling clarity without artifacts from panel misalignment, H/V Lens Shift & Big Zoom Lens for Installation Flexibility.
Winner of the Prize for Best exhibitor at the I-Zone startups and New Tech Demos area at the SID Display Week 2017, Hella together with students from the Institute for Large Area Microelectronics at the University of Stuttgart demonstrate their project to Develop an Active Matrix LCD for Use in High Resolution Adaptive Headlights also presented in detail in this paper.
Conventional adaptive driving beam headlamps are limited in achieving still higher quantities of switchable pixels by the number of LEDs and movable elements needed. In this paper, it is shown that by integrating an active matrix liquid crystal display module, it is possible to realize fully adaptive high-resolution headlights without mechanical elements and a finite number of LED with 30 k switchable pixels.
As adaptive driving beam headlamps (ADBs) are now established and already available in mass-production vehicles, the market is requesting headlight systems with increasing resolution.
State of the art are LED matrix modules such as the HD84 from Hella KGaA Hueck & Co. that realize low beam, ADB, and additional functionalities by using 84 switchable LEDs. But the number of pixels that can be realized using this approach is limited by the number of LEDs that can be integrated in the tight installation space of a headlamp.
Higher resolution is needed to be able to implement new lighting functions to further improve traffic safety when driving at night or dusk. To realize a significant increase in traffic safety, the ADB must be able to simultaneously fade out several drivers of traffic oncoming of the vehicle to avoid glaring and to highlight important areas like road markings and traffic signs. To accomplish this, the headlamp must be able to divide the illuminated area in front of the vehicle into a grid of small areas with individually controlled light intensity. The higher the resolution of the grid, the better are the realizable lighting functions.
Filmed at the I-Zone startups and New Tech Demos area at the SID Display Week.
Projechieve is maker of pico projector technology here demonstrating their new Micro LED Technology as a new suggested alternative to the established DLP, LCD and LCOS based projector technology. One of the models if the PJ 060 with an 800×600 resolution and 0.60″ display size. PJ 042 is a pico projector with a 480×270 resolution and a 0.42″ display size. They claim to be able to offer high brightness at low power usage. Filmed at the I-Zone startups and New Tech Demos area at the SID Display Week.
Super Image projection technologies glowfilm is a technology that enables any piece of glass to be a transparent digital display. The technology uses a transparent emissive film that can be applied to any piece of glass. For example, car Windows be turned into displays using this technology. It can also turn home windows into displays for decoration. The technology can even be used to manufacture televisions by using projectors and glass. Filmed at the I-Zone startups and New Tech Demos area at the SID Display Week.
The Cube V5 by Gesturetek is a portable projection system for creating interactive surfaces. Examples of interactive surfaces include games and advertisements. The V5 has a 10,000:1, 1280×800 resolution, and a surface area up to 130″. Filmed at the SID Display Week.
Dr. Frederic J. Kahn is an early pioneer in Liquid Crystal Displays, He developed some of the original LCD technology for Hewlett Packard calculators. Currently President of Kahn International, he recognized early on the unique physical properties of liquid crystals and their applicability to a broad range of direct-view (flat-panel) and projection displays, as well as to related printing and electronic component manufacturing systems. He has consistently and successfully followed up and built upon that vision with major contributions to the development of commercial enterprises based on information-display technologies.
At the NEC Central Research Laboratory in Kawasaki, Japan, from 1968 to 1969, he proposed and initiated NEC’s liquid-crystal-display R&D, including invention of a field-effect color-change LCD. Starting in 1970, at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, he initiated Bell Labs’ LCD R&D; advanced the understanding and control of LC molecular alignment on solid substrates; invented and was the first to publicly disclose (June 30, 1971) a vertically aligned nematic (VAN) LCD that reorients in a preferred direction at low voltage and which, after three decades of additional development and invention by subsequent workers, is now used in most flat-panel LCD TVs and high-performance LCD projectors; and invented and developed high-resolution LCD projection imaging devices and systems based on laser-addressed smectic-A LCDs.
While Kahn was a project manager for liquid-crystal displays at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories in Palo Alto, California, he led the development of multiplexed TN-LCD technology, which led to HP’s first LCD calculator products, including the best-selling HP 12c business calculator, introduced in 1981 and still sold today (2010). He also developed 40-character multiplexed dot-matrix alpha-numeric LCDs for portable computers and a computer-interactive high-resolution C-sized engineering drawing display. As department manager for optical materials and polymers and later for storage physics, he also led optical-fiber, IC-lithography, and erasable-optical-memory programs.
Kahn founded Greyhawk Systems in Milpitas, California, in 1984 and served as VP Technology, with operational responsibility for LC light-valve development and manufacturing, as well as for new systems and applications development based on IR laser-addressed smectic-A and real-time photo-addressed (CRT and active-matrix) a-Si LCD projection technology. Greyhawk’s products included 7.5-Mpixel 40-in. D and 37.5-Mpixel 144-in. D full-color displays (Softplot and LAD, respectively), an 8.4-Mpixel professional short-run color printer (Ilford Digital Photo Imager), and a 31.5-Mpixel printed-circuit-board exposure and development system (DuPont Seriflash).
According to Dr. S. T. Wu at the College of Optics and Photonics at the University of Central Florida, “Dr. Kahn has made significant scientific and technological contributions in liquid-crystal alignment, especially single-domain vertical alignment, which laid down the foundation for today’s liquid-crystal–on–silicon projectors (commercialized by Sony and JVC), thermally addressed electrically erased high-resolution smectic liquid-crystal light valves, and pitch dilation of cholesteric liquid crystals, just to name a few.”
Dr. Kahn has 18 issued U.S. patents and is the author or editor of over 40 technical publications. He has been a Fellow of SID since 1981. In 2011 he received the Karl Ferdinand Braun Prize, the highest honor of the Society for Information Display (SID) for his “contributions to the research, development and commercialization of liquid crystal displays.”
He has been General Chairman or Program Chairman of six international display conferences sponsored by SID, SPIE, and/or IEEE. He has also served as an SID International Officer (Secretary) and is currently a member of the SID Display Industry Awards Committee and the SID Display Week Program Committee. His current work includes intellectual property and high leverage consulting activities.
Filmed at the SID Display Week tradeshow.
SID disclaimer: Opinions and facts presented by the interviewee are their own and do not represent SID’s views or opinions and are not corroborated by SID.
Acer presents their new 4K DLP projectors at 2499€ and 2999€ (MSRP, price may vary by location). Bringing 4K projectors closer to being affordable by a larger market. Here we try to look at the 4K quality. Acer V7850 (2999€ MSRP) has 2200 lumen suitable for Home Cinema use with a RGBRGB color wheel for HDR and Rec709 and Rec2020 color accuracy while the H7850 (2499€ MSRP) is brighter at 3000 lumens using a normal RGBYCMW color wheel achieves HDR Rec2020 compatibility. Both have AccuMotion Frame interpolation for smooth sequences when there is fast movement. Both have 1 million to 1 contrast ratio. This is a nice first step by Acer to bring 4K Projectors into the mass market, I hope that by next year there might be some even more compact sub-$1000 4K DLP projectors on the market. It is awesome to be able to see the 4K quality with HDR on a huge 100-150 diagonal inch display on the wall at home.
Measy P300 is a 3D short throw portable smart projector. The projector is Android based can load content from an SD card or from an HDMI output. The price is $500. The P509 is mini projector that can output only 2d Content. The P509 can load content from USB, Microsd or can be plugged in via HDMI. The price is $120. The R9D is an Android 6.0 TV Box with a Realtek RTD1295 processor and support for 4k h.265 content. There is also a bay on the R9d for a 3.5″ hard drive. Measy also has other Android tv box with different features and form factors. Measy makes other products such as a wireless HDMI transmitter.
The COI Site Tokyo University of the Arts created uses this high quality reproduction of the Vincent Van Gogh self-portrait and they program features to superimpose using an Epson LCD projector to make it look like the painting comes alive. The effect is very impressive. Perhaps for Tokyo 2020 they should exhibit a whole range of famous Art reproductions and statues and have them all come alive, also using sensors, cameras, artificial intelligence smart conversationals systems, to have all the art pieces talk themselves about who painted the originals, stories about why it was painted like that, funny interactions where the painting can talk to you and react to you walking by. The applications seem endless as when the projector projects white it just functions as lighting on the reproduction, but then when those animations subtly superimprose it can really give the effect of movement in the painting.
Aiptek demonstrates how they are the world leader in TI DLP pico projectors offering a whole range of innovative portable, pocket and pico projectors including the following for their latest range of pico projectors: i70 world’s smallest bright mirroring projector, AN100 an affordable compact 100lumen Android Smart projector, i120 with dual HDMI (input and output), iBeamBlock with pogopins for x86 computer module, tablet touch module, powerback and the 400lumen 720p TI DLP TRP pixel projector. P800 Boombox projector with 360 degree boombox speaker 8 Speakers (40 Watt), 5″ touchscreen Smart Android projector with 4 hour battery at 800lumen 1280×800 for an all-in-one outdoor cinema device running on the Samsung Exynos 5260 Hexacore dual ARM Cortex-A15 and quad ARM Cortex-A7 with Mali-T624 GPU, 2GB RAM, 16GB Flash and MicroSD card slot. AN500VT is world’s first mobile interactive projector with an ir camera to be used with an IR stick to be able to interact with the projector directly on the wall. Aiptek i400 projects 720p with short-throw 400lumen, wireless and USB projection using their USB based codec for easy display mirroring from Windows/Mac computer or from iOS/Android. Aiptek is looking forward when it might be possible for them to also make 1080p and soon after 4K Projectors once the TI DLP 4K solution can be made to fit into a compact size which should be by late 2018. Aiptek iBeamBlock will have a 500lumen 1080p 0.33″ TI DLP module to come. Also driving the LED light from OSRAM, also looking into using up to 2000lumen laser source. Aiptek has been making and shipping the largest amount of TI DLP Pico projectors since 2008 you can watch a whole range of Aiptek videos that I have filmed since 2008 here: https://www.youtube.com/user/Charbax/search?query=Aiptek
The Avegant Glyph is a VR headset with a 720p DLP resolution display in each eye. The Avegant Glyph offers cinematic experience similar to a real movie theater. The displays use DLP technology to project an image onto your eye for the best viewing experience. The Glyph works over HDMI with supported devices. There is a built headset for sound. The price is 549€.
