We've seen plenty of
tiny projector concepts over the past couple of years, but some researchers at Cornell University are taking this idea to its logical extreme by building a whole display on a single chip. The crux of their idea is basing the device on
carbon-fiber, since silicon proves too brittle to handle the 60,000 times a second line-scanning frequency of a traditional video display. Carbon-fiber, on the other hand, can withstand all sorts of abuse and keep on scanning. The chip design has an tiny 400 x 500 micron mirror supported by two carbon-fiber hinges, an array of which -- one for each horizontal line -- would be all that's needed to scan lasers across a screen for a full-fledged video display. Supposedly all this can be squeezed into a form factor small enough to power a cellphone-based projector, and the carbon-fiber springs might even work as a way to harvest energy from user movement for powering small electronic devices. Sign us up for both, please.
[Via
Slashdot]
posted August 25th 2006 1:02PM
If only the Wii came out a little later...
Video scans at 60 Hz, not 60KHz.
the 60,000 times a second line-scanning frequency of a traditional video display.
Err, what's up with that? My monitor offers speeds like 60 Hz, not 60,000 Hz!
Your screen changes the entire screen 60 times a second, in between it does a couple thousand lines, whilst going back and forth. 60khz is correct.
No, don't you see? They are building tiny projectors to show movies to flies! This is why the ultrafast refresh rates are required. Unfortunately it takes thousands of DVDs to store all the frames for a full length film. :(
But keep in mind that those carbon-fiber springs would require movement to generate energy. I don't think fingers typing on a keyboard would be enough. Now, maybe getting up to get more chips and soda, and an occasional pee-break, that could do it, yeah, that's it!
60Hz... not 60KHz!! lol what happened engadget? ain't you a tech blog? you should know betta!
Guys, stop being so dense! 60 kHz is the LINE SCANNING FREQ., not the REFRESH RATE. You have a thousand scans for each refresh! The number is correct!
Some people are satisfied with just one line :)
But if you have one mirror for each scan line, then the mirrors need to scan at the frame rate (60-90 fps) not the line rate. If you have only one mirror, then it must move at the line rate. Something does not compute
60 refreshes of a thousand lines, every second?
That would certainly exceed what's currently available in video standards. E.g. 1080i is really only projecting 540 lines 60 times per second -- because it's interlaced. I'm aware that there are 1080p sets available, but the original article mentioned a 60 kHz rate in the "traditional video display." So I remain unconvinced, Montoya and Neutron.