Handheld gaming in HD, on a 10-ft screen
by Vladimir Cole 
{ Feb 16th 2006 at 4:00AM }
Your next gaming handheld might feature a tiny projector that, according to Audioholics.com:
- has no moving parts
- uses miniature lasers to display images
- requires less than 1.5W to run at full power
- features "infinite focus" that will create a sharp picture at any range
- can handle 2048 x 1280 resolution
Audioholics quotes Nic Lawrence, CEO of the company that created this prototype: "Our vision is to make it simple for people to share photos with their friends and to comfortably view mobile TV and music videos from their mobile devices. We believe that access to a large display, such as is provided by our PVPro projection technology, is key to increasing ease of use."
Gamer dreams do come true. It's still years away from widespread commercial use in a gaming handheld, though. Bummer.
[Via HDBeat]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
fawazr @ Feb 16th 2006 4:12AM
How viable is a handheld that needs a screen to project images onto. Wouldn't that just make it a really small console? Like, you wouldn't want to accidentally project laser beams into your dad's eyes while he was driving on a long road trip. You also couldn't play on the move. Lame idea. Now, if this were for the home, it would be cool, but who has a bare wall pristine enough to project HD images onto?
ill trooper @ Feb 16th 2006 4:26AM
'BattleZone' on it!
http://freespace.virgin.net/james.handlon/battlezone/bzshot21.gif
ill trooper @ Feb 16th 2006 4:29AM
Jeezzus! What is up with my comments bugging out? Sorry everyone!
the reverend @ Feb 16th 2006 5:00AM
so I won't be able to use this on the bus?
that sucks big sweaty ones.
Freecajunlove @ Feb 16th 2006 8:13AM
If this succeeds, they stand to make A LOT of money.
- The next generation of billboard and bus ads.
- Put it in the dash of a car and project various vitals onto the windshield.
- Or imagine a GPS navigation system that prject arrows onto the windshield when a turn is coming up.
- PSP and Ipod add-on for movie sharing (Well, when they up the resolution of course).
Perri @ Feb 16th 2006 9:33AM
that sounds almost too good to be true...Almost too futuristic. I can't believe how efficient they claim it to be, must be expensive...
If we hadn't seen the A/V out on the back of the Revolution already I'd have taken the projector rumour a bit more seriously...hmm...
Anyways, I think that's a great idea, you don't NEED a screen, you could project onto a sidewalk, back of a car seat, the ceiling, any wall...That infinite focus thing, thats just crazy
Scott @ Feb 16th 2006 9:42AM
I've heard this before from a much bigger company and it still hasn't come to fruition.
Take a look at a technology called GLV. It's somewhat similar to DLP, but instead of tiny square mirrors, it uses tiny ribbons to bend the light. Instead of using a UHP bulb as a light source, its uses a Red, Green, and Blue laser. This also eliminates the need for the color wheel as in DLP. You know why you don't see GLV TV's out there? Because blue lasers are rediculously hard to produce and mighty expensive. But a BIG company saw the promise of this technology and bought the patent. This was back in July 2000. They then went about creating a giant campaign to make the blue laser cheap. How? Simple, they forced its use in the next generation disc format. They then used that disc format in their next generation gaming system ;)
As for lensless projection, it already exists in several forms. Ever seen the NEC WT-610? Ever been to a laser show? All well in fine not to have to deal with lenses, but you still have to know the throw distance or you won't be able to get it into focus.
The size is also a problem. Think about what the slightest vibration would do to that thing.
Make no mistake. This is mostly a start-up company making a play for investment dollars. It's neat, but its mostly smoke and mirrors. Move along, nothing to see here.
jc @ Feb 16th 2006 11:04AM
Imagine a pair of these attached to a special headset, or even glasses. Their infinite focus could change your game room (with specially installed moving floor) into your own holodeck gaming universe.
epobirs @ Feb 16th 2006 11:44AM
Scott, your remarks about blue lasers are somewhat silly. There was no conspiracy to force next generation disc formats to use blue lasers. It was inevitable because that is what you need for the shorter wavelengths to read denser formations in the media. Blue lasers were a holy grail long before the display technology you mention. Articles projecting the future of optical disc technology were discussing the goal of lasers in the blue portion of the spectrum back in the 80s after CD audio became successful. In years to come even shorter wavelengths will be the focus of articles but the R&D spending is already happening. To stay competitive a tech business has to be working on the next big thing while the current product is just starting to reach consumers.
By the logic you use, laptop computers have been forced into existence to drive battery technology to eventually enable practical electric cars. The laptop market itself is more than sufficient to drive the battery R&D all by itself. While the advent of consumer devices driving a market for cheap blue laser may enable GLV to become a real product, the optical disc business doesn't need such outside prompting to drive improvements in its products.
It's true that many exciting technologies never make it past the demo stage but every technology we do have once only a demo.
Wired Magazine covered the competition to own the blue laser market way back in 1995, somewhat before the date you suggest for the beginning of the conspiracy to force blue lasers on us poor unsuspecting consumers.
http://wired-vig.wired.com/wired/archive/3.03/blue.laser.html
Yes, it's true that lenseless projection isn't new. The trick is implementing it as to be easily usable. Likely the product would use a laser or IR pulse to automatically detect and adjust to the range.
epobirs @ Feb 16th 2006 11:57AM
I don't see this as the basis of a handheld but it could certinly be part of a portable media player and game system. A foldout panel that serves solely as a projection surface would have far less weight and bulk than a LCD panel. The panels on big screen laptop computers are a major portion of their weight and since they must be rigid also mean the dimension of the laptop cannot be made any less for easy handling when not in use. Imagine a media/game player no bigger than a sub-notebook but with a foldout projetion screen of a size comparable to a desktop replacement behemoth. The defining dimension for a laptop then becomes the minimum acceptable keyboard.
If the production version has a price significantly lower than a good sized LCD panel it becomes a very interesting prospect.
Maximoisgood @ Feb 16th 2006 11:58AM
Somepeople just know way too much. ((Now where is that little uparrow button??))
Shagz @ Feb 16th 2006 12:59PM
Great, soon the neighbours will be able to run their vacation slide shows on the side of their house for the entire block to see. :P
Anticrawl @ Feb 17th 2006 1:20AM
That's pretty cool. Big idea for a company like that. Better keep an eye on them. Wouldn't mind buying into a product like that.
As for the current or near future need for blue laser read discs, it's bullshit. They've been saying this, like someone else said, when the CD was developed. The full potential for the red laser has yet to be tapped into. It's so much more cheaper too, and if we were to go into the next teir of red laser tech it wouldn't cost the industry hundreds of billions to adjust to. They have this little company, developing a humble new format. It's called the VMD and is already at a standard of 50 gb I believe the last time I checked. That is with red laser tech and the discs will only cost .65 cents compared to a .50 cent dvd disc. Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs most likely will cost anywhere from $1.50(I wish) to $10.00(Nightmarish thought). And if we adopt VMD as the standard(if Blu-ray and HD-DVD aren't accepted because of the lack of a need for it) then in a few or several years when the need for blue lasers is existant only a minor change in equipment(by minor I mean cost in comparison to the other two blue laser formats) and will have more space per disc than either other formats combined.
God, I'll never understand that industry. Well it makes sense in a way why they are doing what they are doing. But common sense says otherwise. It's enough to make a man shoot himself.
Pixels for my people,
Anticrawl