German researchers unveil a euro cent-sized projector

You've already seen the slew of projectors that we at Engadget are wont to write about regularly. But what you probably haven't seen is this euro cent-sized projector created by crafty German engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Optics and Precision Engineering in Jena. The 16mm (0.6 inches) wide projector works by shooting a laser at a single vibrating mirror, and although it works with red and blue lasers, the scientists say that green diode lasers aren't yet small enough, preventing the projector from hitting a full range of colors -- so hold off on thinking you're going to be watching "Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat" from a thumb-drive sized device in the near future. Dr. Peter Schreiber of the Fraunhofer Institute told the BBC that such a device could be eventually embedded into cellphones or PDAs. We'd love to be able to project a movie from our phone, but sadly Dr. Schreiber didn't tell the Beeb how big the projected image is, how much it will or currently costs, nor when it might be available -- not even a rough estimate, like 2014. Why must you be so coy with us, Fraunhofer Institute?

[Thanks, Ndric]

[o0adam0o @ Sep 20th 2006 12:37PM]

Bah! Thats not a penny.

[Cyrus Farivar @ Sep 20th 2006 2:17PM]

Good call. We've fixed the error.

[Matt3o @ Sep 20th 2006 12:47PM]

Hey, thet's a € cent!!!

[Brenden @ Sep 20th 2006 1:22PM]

Next you'll be telling me that my projected girlfriend isnt real!!

[Nith @ Sep 20th 2006 1:29PM]

Ingnoring the issue that it is not a penny, it is an awsome idea with a million applications.

Even though its not there yet to be released to the consumer market I am sure it will be snapped up when it is.

[pro ject @ Sep 20th 2006 1:43PM]

This would go nicely on the back of my laptop screen for presentations.
Just open up and present or show movies. Sweet!

[Evan @ Sep 20th 2006 1:47PM]

hmm, does this remind anyone of the movie The Island, where Ewan Mcgregor's real-life rich-ass sex-mongering counterpart called up the big company with a video phone. On his cellphone. With a projector planted into the back of it?

What is it about movies that give scientists amazing ideas? Screw it, we should fire all our scientists, and replace them with script writers. They're our actual future.

[PEZ @ Sep 20th 2006 1:52PM]

OK, so make the thing twice the size of a friggin penny and add a green laser - sheesh. Problem solved.

[Saif @ Sep 20th 2006 1:59PM]

This was the technical idea behind each display in the Virtual Boy, except that it only used red LEDs. To fit current technology into a device even a fraction the size of the Virtual Boy's display unit could mean practical and portable projectors today. Get on it!

[John Lisherness @ Sep 20th 2006 2:49PM]

Symbol has had this for several years:
http://www.symbol.com/LPD/
Now that Symbol was bought by Motorola, it's not a stretch to belive well see one of these on a mobile phone.

[Brian from Texas @ Sep 20th 2006 3:14PM]

Good find John. Like to see links to current products. I wonder how much the Nokia 103 with video projection will cost?

Screw Motorola!

[Nith @ Sep 20th 2006 3:21PM]

You're right this is not new but for the Symbol LPD Dimensions are:

(without heat sink)
2.6" x 1.8" x 0.9" = 4.3 in3
6.6 cm x 4.6 cm x 2.3 cm = 71 cc

Which is still much much bigger than this one. But the Symbol one can do all three colours.

[indeego @ Sep 20th 2006 3:19PM]

Sizewise you can expect DIN A4 (210mm � 297mm) and DIN A3(297mm � 420mm), also bright enough for movies. Source: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/77757

[187 - John Doe @ Sep 20th 2006 3:46PM]

I like, those smart Germans do it again... This would be awesome to have in a Video/MP3/Gadget player thing, because those screens are just too small.

[dpk @ Sep 20th 2006 5:38PM]

It'd be nifty if there was a link about the projector, instead of just a photo.

[robin @ Sep 20th 2006 6:25PM]

See, here's the problem:
The source for the source (in thise case Ndric) was a major German TV Station Pro7, which showed it at their prime time news mag at 20:00 and while they did say the things mentioned above, there are a lot of things that were forgotten.
One thing is the resolution - it seems like it is somewhere in the below VGA region, my guess would be around 200 by 200 at most.
This leads to the second problem: How to mix colors! Since the pixel are the pixel are that big, you would have to deactivate some to mix a colour. For example, a purble square would consit of two red and two blue laser pixels, making shapes that are round or have some sort of a curve even lower quality.
Then there is the limited size of the projection - on TV they should an image 5 by 5 cm big (5cm are give or take a little around 2 inches).
Now, the typical engadget reader noticed that I wrote about an "image"... Does that give you to think about the frame rate? Well, it got me thinking - and i don't think it's gonna be 25fps!

But Fraunhofer rocks your socks - they are the guys that invented mp3s... Even after two Worldwars, payback still is a bitch. I guess the music industry can tell you more about that ;).

n!bor/Germany.

[John Doe @ Sep 20th 2006 6:54PM]

yea well light blue optics has been doing this with their pvpro technology and theirs is as big as a matchbox (not to mention HD)
O and theirs has no moving parts and doesnt need to be focused

[John Doe @ Sep 20th 2006 6:54PM]

testing comments

[Peter @ Sep 20th 2006 10:02PM]

Put it in an ipod and i am sold.

[chaymation @ Sep 21st 2006 4:04AM]

I wonder if it would be possible to have two of these (with green as well of course) and have them on a headset so it projects images into your eyes?

Or am I missing something vital in the projector + eyes = "hires VR without screens" equation?

[Rus @ Sep 21st 2006 9:41AM]

From the Symbol LPD mentioned above: The projector can support a variety of
optical resolutions, including QVGA, VGA, SGA, XGA, and HDTV
720p. The device projects 56� horizontal and 42� vertical maximum
scan angles. The average optical output of the engine is 10 lumens,
which generates about 60 nits on a 13 inch diagonal screen without
optical gain. Typical power consumption of the device is 5 watts.
The LPD engine produces images with 24 bit color depth within an
unparalleled color gamut, due to the selection of laser wavelengths
at the edges of the visible spectrum (red = 635 nm, blue = 440 nm,
green = 532 nm).

10 lumens isn't very much and 13 inches isn't very big (in fact it's useless) ... I wonder if this particular device (penny projector) is any better than that.

[Casper @ Sep 29th 2006 9:19AM]

Check this site... http://lightblueoptics.com/index.htm ...I'm waiting 4 several years now 2 C what is going 2 B the NEXT big media revolution...in a positive way so 2 speak...the world is changing rapidly.....

[Casper @ Sep 29th 2006 9:25AM]

X cuse me ..apparently I'd missed the comment of John Doe ..he already notified about Light Blue Optics... Beam me up Scotty...