Light Blue Optics' touch-based laser projector hitting manufacturers in Q4 -- will look nothing like this image

While the global economic crisis has swept aside a number of early innovators in mobile technology, Light Blue Optics finds itself flush with cash this morning. Having secured $15 million in funding, the UK outfit now plans to have its laser-based pico projection engine to OEMs by the end of the year; a move that should result in a tiny retail projector sometime in the first half of 2010. Why should you care? Well, unlike all those LED-based pico projectors now saturating the market, laser-based projectors offer more vivid colors and the ability to auto-focus that mobile image as it's moved about. Even better, LBO has touch-enabled the system allowing users to interact with the projected display. A second generation engine about the size of a sugar cube will ultimately allow the technology to be embedded in mobile devices like cellphones as we're already seeing with LED-based engines. Since the supplied image above totally misrepresents the first generation device, we've embedded a video of the tech, first published in March, after the break. Skip to the 3-minute mark if you want to avoid the pitch.

[Via PicoProjector-info]

[ChaosEntity17 @ Jul 20th 2009 3:19AM]

How do they change the diffraction grating so quickly?

[morcheeba @ Jul 20th 2009 11:48AM]

It's an LCOS display. The tough part is calculating the diffraction grating in real time... they do it with some sort of processor.

What's amazing is that when I was in high school, a friend of mine used a supercomputer to calculate a synthetic hologram (e.g. a hologram of something that doesn't exist) ... and now this microdisplay does a similar problem (2d instead of 3d), in real time, on batteries!

[DeadRinger @ Jul 20th 2009 3:25AM]

It would be nice to have one of those in my G1.

[seriousam7 @ Jul 20th 2009 3:40AM]

It's always bugged me that she isn't even looking at it.

[theCardinal @ Jul 20th 2009 4:19AM]

That really bothers me too. And that her hand doesn't block the projection. Actually the whole photo is a photoshop mess. The angle her arm is at was changed. The headphones are inserted...the whole table looks like it's inserted too, probably to cover up whatever was actually on the table.

[slothman @ Jul 20th 2009 4:28AM]

if this is an actual PR shot, i hope someone got fired.

[j_g_puff @ Jul 20th 2009 5:56AM]

Compare with the PR 'photo' from the previous engadget article:

http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/03/light-blue-optics-promises-touch-interface-pico-projectors/

My grandmother could have done a better job, and she uses MS paint.

[Duke @ Jul 20th 2009 11:10AM]

It's almost as if they were pushing those women to look as awkward as possible in that photo. It bothers me a lot when looking at it - the looks on their faces, their focus points, the hand placement...nothing in that shot makes the tech look real or impressive.

[morcheeba @ Jul 20th 2009 11:51AM]

It's a stock photo that's been horribly abused. I like how the projector projects darkness - something darker than her jacket & darker than the table top.

Until they've got a more photogenic product, they need to make their mockup look better.

[Modrn @ Jul 20th 2009 4:27AM]

Yah man thats SO bad how they did that picture I almost cant believe there even using that..

[Orinjz @ Jul 20th 2009 5:05AM]

It's nice to see that they've used some of that $15 million to hire a REAL Photoshop professional to create an amazing looking mockup of a projector instead of sticking a Sony Cybershot in there again. It looks so much more professional now.

[AlpahGeeeK @ Jul 20th 2009 5:34AM]

That's a big sugar cube, 5 cubic cm!

[Damiem @ Jul 20th 2009 6:59AM]

That's five cubic centimeters (5cm^3 = 1.71cm X 1.71cm X 1.71cm ) not five centimeters cubed ((5cm)^3 = 5cm X 5cm X 5cm).

[sam @ Jul 20th 2009 9:23AM]

@Damien: Yes, but isn't a 'standard' sized sugar cube more like 1cm^3?

so basically, it'll be big for a sugar cube, but still reasonably small for a projector.

[AlpahGeeeK @ Jul 20th 2009 9:28AM]

Only on Engadget can you have a discussion about the size of sugar cubes :-)

[10minutehobo @ Jul 20th 2009 6:18AM]

I think a simple line drawing would be better than that pic.

[G. I. @ Jul 20th 2009 6:55AM]

This picture is a piece of photoshop.

[pavlindrom @ Jul 20th 2009 8:31AM]

Anyone else bothered they show a porn movie at the end of the video to demo the American version?

[Jimmy @ Jul 20th 2009 10:44AM]

didn't Microsoft already make a touchable projection system called play anywhere

[To: Hell @ Jul 20th 2009 11:15AM]

Clearly these wicked women are looking at profiles on Lavalife and laughing at them.

[willyboy @ Jul 20th 2009 11:26AM]

Man hand

[morcheeba @ Jul 20th 2009 11:58AM]

The description is a bit wrong using the words "auto-focus". There is no need to focus; the laser is always in focus. The subtle difference is that this technology can project on to a non-flat surface (or non-perpendicular) and still be in focus in all areas; an autofocus system would be able to make only one portion of the image in focus.

I haven't seen the demos in person, but I've worked with some of the technology they are using ... IMHO, this is my favorite microprojector technology.

[Tdburn @ Jul 20th 2009 12:47PM]

I've been waiting years for Light Blue to release something! At this point they seem to have the most potential in supplying usable pico projectors.

[Tibble @ Jul 20th 2009 2:32PM]

Yeah, that's nowhere near being her arm. The irony of this photo is that the projected image is very saturated while the photo it's sitting on is washed out when we all know that the projected image will most likely be far less prominent than this.

[VdV @ Jul 23rd 2009 6:48AM]

Photo(shopo) quality has been bashed properly as it deserves. Next thing is they look like they have no faintest idea what's this all about. "So the guy told us to look at this boring-who-knows-what and smile. The smile part we kind of understand".