Kopin lays claim to world's smallest color SVGA display

It looks like the various companies that rely on Kopin displays for their gear could soon be soon be dishing out a round of upgrades, as the company has just unveiled what it claims is the world's smallest color SVGA display. Those possible upgrades are made all the more likely by the fact that Kopin's new so-called CyberDisplay SVGA LVS boasts exactly the same 0.44-inch diagonal size as its current VGA model, which allows it to use the same optics and housing, with the size of the connecting cable the only difference. While there's no word on any eyewear or other devices set to use the new display just yet, "select customers" looking to put it to use can apparently get their sample units for evaluation from Kopin right now.

[OneLove @ Jan 10th 2008 3:06PM]

slap that on a keyboard

[OneLove @ Jan 10th 2008 3:07PM]

slap that on a keyboard

[Electromodo @ Jan 10th 2008 3:14PM]

I bet Optimus-Maximus already holds patent for that.

[OneLove @ Jan 11th 2008 1:11PM]

that who am talking too

[OneLove @ Jan 11th 2008 1:13PM]

thats who am talking too

[Darius S @ Jan 10th 2008 3:07PM]

I always wanted a tv screen for my penis. looks like Kopin delievered.

[James @ Jan 10th 2008 3:15PM]

I just use my Apple 17" LCD... what, you can't use that on *your* wang?

[Electromodo @ Jan 10th 2008 3:13PM]

One application - cameras viewfinder. Must be good for tiny point&shoot cameras (like flash-card-based cameras)

[Galactican @ Jan 10th 2008 3:44PM]

Will it do 1080P?

[Wwhat @ Jan 11th 2008 2:32AM]

Yes indeed, SVGA is known as 1080p, how did you guess?

this was an sarcastic post~

[Nubaeus @ Jan 10th 2008 3:45PM]

Is it in quad HD?

[joey @ Jan 10th 2008 4:01PM]

This will be great for HIgh DEfinition camcorder's eye view finders!

[Kappy @ Jan 10th 2008 4:19PM]

Heh, best part is that there is a Lasik add right underneath the article.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 10th 2008 10:09PM]

ugh, i saw how they do that. you know what a planer is? the carpenters tool? imagine that used on your cornea.

[Sam Zebian @ Jan 10th 2008 4:21PM]

they can finally make lcd's on a pair of shoes!! or a Hat!! Maybe on a guitar for guitar hero guitar, then the buttons can change to do other things! (my useless ideas...)

[Brits3ever @ Jan 10th 2008 4:23PM]

stupid americans.

[James Flowers @ Jan 10th 2008 4:31PM]

No it is not 1080p, being 1024x768 it is not even 720p, needing 1280x720 to class!!!
But it is the same resolution as the majority of laptops and I am happy to work at that resolution. So please mount it on the arm of some glasses and bounce it off of the glass so that I can still focus through or focus on the image. Put a coating on the other side so no one can see what I am looking at to round it off. Put a camera on the other arm of the glasses to keep it balanced and an MPEG2/4 recorder in a holster under my arm. Have a neural net process the images from the camera and display augmented images on the screen, reminding me who I am talking to and translating foreign text in real time. GPS guidance and meeting schedules etc would be nice also.

[paul @ Jan 10th 2008 5:07PM]

> No it is not 1080p, being 1024x768 it is not even 720p, needing 1280x720 to class!!!

It's not 1024x768. SVGA is 800x600 (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Vector_Video_Standards2.svg)

[Tony C @ Jan 10th 2008 5:21PM]

Served.

Helluva writeup for being wrong, LOL.

[JMoses @ Jan 10th 2008 5:05PM]

I am expecting some nice HUDs to come from this!

[JMoses @ Jan 10th 2008 5:05PM]

I am expecting some nice HUDs to come from this!

[RomeoDude @ Jan 10th 2008 5:43PM]

Looks perfect for gaming. Halo 3 4-player co-op on split-screen anyone?

[Ricardo @ Jan 10th 2008 5:50PM]

Maybe HTC should take a look at this and stop making crappy QVGA screens.

[Ricardo @ Jan 10th 2008 5:50PM]

Maybe HTC should take a look at this and stop making crappy QVGA screens.

[Ricardo @ Jan 10th 2008 5:50PM]

Maybe HTC should take a look at this and stop making crappy QVGA screens.

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 10th 2008 10:10PM]

wow nice triple post.

[Ricardo @ Jan 11th 2008 9:47AM]

Sorry...

Engadget needs to do something about these bugs.

[jeicrash @ Jan 10th 2008 5:59PM]

Its nice and all, but how many devices need a dime sized screen? I don't think anyone would buy a camera with that small of a screen in it. At least I wouldn't. It would be neat if they can be strung together to make larger displays, a computer monitor with different sections popped out and some indented would be a nifty novelty item.

Anywho, may come in handy for some of the wrt54g mods/hacks.

[morcheeba @ Jan 10th 2008 6:03PM]

Displaytech came out with a 0.46 inch SVGA display last year: http://www.displaytech.com/121106_pr_vga_wvga_svga.html
It's practically the same size, but it comes with 2 distinct advantages:
First, the controller chip is built-in. The kopin requires an external controller in a 276-pin package. Depending on configuration, it needs an external DRAM chip, too. More info: http://www.kopin.com/svga/
Second, the displaytech part doesn't use a color mask, so it won't show the "screen door" effect that the kopin will -- the result is a much better looking picture. More info: http://www.displaytech.com/technology.html

I've seen the displaytech display playing HD movies & it's breathtaking.

[Wwhat @ Jan 11th 2008 2:37AM]

HD movies on a 0.46 inch display and it's breathtaking? seems a bit - I don't know - overstated perhaps?.

[morcheeba @ Jan 13th 2008 3:22AM]

wwhat - it was through a microscope. You couldn't resolve individual pixels, so it looked perfect. (I guess that's an advantage inherent in viewfinders compared to screens).

It also had LED lighting, so the colors were super saturated -- much better than NTSC, sRGB, or film. There are no color filters, so the greens are especially saturated. See the gamut section here -- it's similar to the laser system: http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/other/print/lcd-parameters.html )

[morcheeba @ Jan 10th 2008 6:05PM]

Displaytech came out with a 0.46 inch SVGA display last year: http://www.displaytech.com/121106_pr_vga_wvga_svga.html
It's practically the same size, but it comes with 2 distinct advantages:
First, the controller chip is built-in. The kopin requires an external controller in a 276-pin package. Depending on configuration, it needs an external DRAM chip, too. More info: http://www.kopin.com/svga/
Second, the displaytech part doesn't use a color mask, so it won't show the "screen door" effect that the kopin will -- the result is a much better looking picture. More info: http://www.displaytech.com/technology.html

I've seen the displaytech display playing HD movies & it's breathtaking.

[Mattfreifeld @ Jan 10th 2008 6:30PM]

lol why does everyone think there for small devices

theese screens are being devloped for mini projecters

[baalpeteor @ Jan 10th 2008 7:08PM]

wtf with all these typos it says:
"It looks like the various companies that rely on Kopin displays for their gear could soon be soon be dishing out "

[Grant @ Jan 10th 2008 9:08PM]

So,
they finally buckled and decided to put a screen on the ipod shuffle.

[Grant @ Jan 10th 2008 9:14PM]

So,
they finally buckled and decided to put a screen on the ipod shuffle.

[dale_nx26 @ Jan 10th 2008 11:02PM]

This is for the iPod micro.

[celerysword @ Jan 10th 2008 11:37PM]

Am I the only one who thought this looked like a belt buckle, and now thinks it would be a cool idea?

[Carl Vitullo @ Jan 10th 2008 10:11PM]

dude. it's smaller than a dime.

[Wwhat @ Jan 11th 2008 2:38AM]

Finally we can get displays on dimes!
Makes paying in dimes less tedious.