Kopin crafts world's smallest VGA microdisplay, 2k x 2k postage stamps up next
Think your cellphone display packs a lot of pixels into a small space? Pssh. Kopin Corporation has just announced the smallest VGA color-filter liquid crystal display, checking in with a 600 x 480 resolution and a 0.27-inch (diagonal) size. The feat was accomplished by shrinking the color dots to 2.9 x 8.7 µm from 3.75 x 11.25 µm, and according to the company, it's a huge step in reaching its goal of creating a "2,048 x 2,048-resolution display in a size smaller than a typical postage stamp." Already, the firm has stated that it can concoct SVGA (800 x 600) displays at 0.34-inches, XGA (1,024 x 768) displays at 0.44-inches and and SXGA (1,280 x 1,024) displays at 0.56-inch using the same color dot size, which will apparently be used in digicams, camcorders and possibly even handsets. And you thought that D90 panel was something to ooh and ahh over...























Can someone explain the value of packing in the pixels like that? Unless its being used somehow for projection?
Presumably for EVF (electronic viewfinders) in digital cameras. Although I'm yet to use one that actually looks any good.
maybe like for watches?
Electronic viewfinders.
Lots of camera manufacturers give the 'resolution' of their EVFs in the total number of pixels (eg. the Panasonic DMC-FZ28 with 201600 pixels), which is of course highly misleading since even a 640x480 display has over 300,000 pixels. So these would offer significantly better viewfinders!
and i thought I would escape wearing eye glasses... gimme something with this on it for a day or two and then book an appointment for me!
The iPhone pico of course... And you thought typing on the iPhone with big hands was hard...
1. Micro projectors
2. VR glass
3. ....
Perhaps creating coins with animated presidents.
Pixel density is important in achieving more realistic viewing.
If you compare a printed photo to a HDTV the printed photo is simply much sharper and better looking with much more detail.
Your average printed photo comes in at around 300 DPI(dots per inch). Now lets get your 50 inch 1080p TV and your talking about less than 45 PPI(pixels per inch).
WYSIWYG(an acronym for What You See Is What You Get) is more relevant to PC monitors than TV's but the fact of the matter is that pin drop sharpness we get in pictures won't be replicated on TV sets until we do reach a much higher PPI than we traditionally have on larger screens.
We are a country mile away form this goal because even those next generation 4K 56 inch sets have a PPI of only around 80 and the 150 inch TV wall with that resolution has only 30PPI.
You can argue the benefits of higher PPI in TV application versus bigger screen sizes but basically the holy nirvana would be extremely high PPI with a big screen.
We are a long way off from WYSIWYG though.
its so the G-Force can use them : http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/gforce/
Tony -
True and yet in your explanation of 300dpi vs 45ppi, is missing the relative viewing distance. The same photo can be just as sharp on two different displays - one to be viewed at from 6inches away and another to be viewed at 6ft away.
That said. I would gladly welcome double the res on my 24" Dell monitor. If only Windows + my video card new how to handle it properly.
"Ahmed Alzayani @ Jun 12th 2009 9:54AM
1. Micro projectors
2. VR glass
3. ...."
3. Profit.
Now we can have really tiny HDTV's which we can stick on our eyes :D
I'm going to need a microscope for 2k x 2k.
No one can distinguish the dots anyway. Sorta like a 19" FULL HD TV.
I must be super human then, I can see those dots easily.
As someone above me mentioned, it all depends on viewing distance. For example, imagine this display in a digital viewfinder, where the eye is an inch or two away from the screen.
You know, they have 15 inch 1080p displays on laptops, but nobody complains about those. Its all about viewing distance. And if these were to go into a pair of VR glasses or Color-enhanced night vision goggles, the distance would be much less....
Hmm, didn't see the comment before mine. I guess I was just being redundant.
And my iPhone is 480 x 320 why? I loathe Steve Jobs with every fiber of my being. To steal a line from Louis C.K., I just have to stop everything I'm doing and use my entire body to hate him.
I hate to talk about the iPhone as if I put any thought into it, but the phone is already quite a wallet-shrinker as it is compared to a few other good phones. I find it hard to imagine adding a higher resolution screen wouldn't add a good Benjy more to the price.
wallet shrinker?? a 16GB is $199 on a new contract! Additionally, I love all the people who bitch about the "high monthly fees", when in fact the $30 data plan requirement is exactly the same with all Blackberrys on AT&T and Verizon, and now ALL SMARTPHONES on Verizon (not sure about AT&T).
I wouldn't mind getting a couple of these for a nice dual-monitor setup.
Wow... that's small.... i can't wait till i can get a computer monitor that sharp for $150 (1440x900 right now isn't all that bad, but it could be better)
19" Monitor with a res of 40,000x25,000 hehe
GPUs everywhere just exploded after just seeing those numbers.
Oh yeah? Well, I can paint a rice portrait on a piece of rice. See if they can show THAT on your 0.27 inch screen...
That is just a sick screen size.. i would love a monitor of 40Kx25K or what have you. I wonder what the resolution of the human eye is?
the cells in your eye are made up of rods and cones. The diameter of cones varies from .50 to 4.0 µm. When they get these pixels down to that size and put them inside glasses with the right colour depth and refresh rate it should be like looking out a window.
The resolution of the human eye has been estimated at 576 Megapixels
http://www.clarkvision.com/imagedetail/eye-resolution.html
600X480 ??
I thought VGA resolution was "640"X480 and not just 600... ??
Those (currently) chintzy glasses that "simulate a 40in screen from 6ft away" may actually be pretty cool in the near future. I just hope I don't look like the douche reclining in first class that SkyMall likes to show off.
600x480 is not VGA. These guys a DIRTY ROTTEN LIARS!
Now we need a matching keyboard so cockroaches can have their netbooks, too.
Bullet-resistant face armor. Place a solid steel/carbon/kevlar visor over a face. Under the visor, two of these hi-rez screens, one on each eye, for binocular vision. Ont the outside of the visor, a goggle array with two cameras feeding the two screens. Should be more than Good Enough to see, with the great feature of the wearer being able to survive a rifle shot to the face. If the camera array is blown off, then unplug the ruin and snap on a new one.
The energy of the bullet still has to go somewhere it may no kill you but you will get some serious whiplash.
Waveguide the photons around the faceplate into ultra-small openings on the side. No screens necessary. Although having nightvision in there would be nice.
I wonder how shrinking the dots effects light output. 1000PPI isn't worth much at 10 lumens.
And just think, your precious iPhone/Pre/G1 is just half this resolution, your Touch Diamond is equal it and even a Touch Diamond2/pro2 is only a little more...
Shh, and here I thought my touch pro at 640x480 in a 2.8 inch screen was a amazing feet. I'm happy that I'm able to type this on it.
3D VR glasses!!! That's why they never got a momentum, those tiny LCD screens always had terrible resolution, and CRT based helmets were just too bulky...
Hopefully we'll see them soon in products like Myvu
That's the first thing I thought of - the VR glasses. A personal, portable Imax theater would be very cool.
I can think of a very cool application of this... can't tell you classified.. ;p.
I seen and used a Black and white LCD panel a little bigger than this one, and now with color the possibilities for what I used it for are very interesting. I might have to wait for a higher resolution duh.
so where's my 70 inch 4k tv? and then i'll ask when hollywood will switch to RED exclusively. then everything i watch on said 70in will be eye-gasmic and i'll never leave my house again.
Two new applications of these microdisplays are the WiPC (www.mywipc.com) and the Golden-i (http://www.kopin.com/golden-i/). They're both using an SVGA microdisplay, pretty cool stuff.
http://mywipc.com/
Here's the WiPC site again, hopefully as a link this time...
Damn, I thought the Touch Pro's screen was an eyestrain-machine...
Give me hi-res VR glasses damn it! I'm tired of these QVGA blurry POS on the market right now :[
Neat!
someone's gonna use this for pron....
It's for the new Art Lebedev Optimus keyboard. It must be!!
Those Russians are very creative.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3jwbg_optimus-keyboard_tech