Texas Instruments technology produces ultraportable projectors
New developments in Texas Instruments (TI; Dallas, TX) digital-light-processing (DLP) technology have resulted in increased brightness and contrast as well as decreased size and weight for a second-generation series of ultraportable projectors. Able to display both data and video in "lights-on" presentations, these projectors weigh less than 10 lbs and are only slightly larger than laptop computers. Projector improvements were achieved by the use of a highly compact optics design, the need to use just one digital micromirror device (DMD), and the innovations of TI`s DLP original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).
For example, one OEM, In Focus (Wilsonville, OR), offers the LP420 ultraportable projector that weighs less than 7 lbs and provides 500 lumens of brightness. Another OEM, Plus Corp. (Allendale, NJ), produces the UP-800, an SVGA-resolution projector that weighs less than 10 lbs and supplies 600 lumens of brightness, claimed by the company as the world`s brightest ultraportable.
"DLP technology puts [ultraportable] projectors into briefcases, which means that sharp, bright, high-quality images can be presented almost anywhere with ease," says Sherel Horsley, senior vice president of TI`s digital imaging group.
The DMD, the core of TI`s DLP technology, is a SRAM chip containing an array of 848 ¥ 600 (or 508,000) hinged microscopic mirrors attached to its upper surface. Each mirror, which is equivalent to a single pixel in the projected image, reflects color light. The relative amount of time each mirror is in the "on" or "off" state when red, green, or blue light shines on each mirror determines the hue and shade of its generated pixel. By using reflected light, the projector`s digital capabilities enable noise-free, highly stable color images and precise gray-scale and color reproduction without distortion.
