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3M Touch Systems 46-inch Projected Capacitive Display hands-on (video)
Heard of Microsoft Surface? Sure you have. It's the tech that takes capacitive touch and smears it across a table-like design. While those devices, manufactured by the likes of Samsung, have begun their slow creep into the market, rival companies are hard at work on their own multi-user, widescreen touch solutions. Which is precisely what 3M Touch Systems is showing off today at CES Unveiled. At 46-inches, its prototype Projected Capacitive Technology ups the ante on user input, allowing a theoretical maximum of 60 touch points and up to four split screens. We had a chance to take the table for a test run, so click on past the break to see how it fared.
IEE brings glasses-free 3D to the battlefield
In a war zone, having the right data is as important as the right bomb sniffing laser. IEE has melded its 4.8-inch 800 x 400 military data display with 3Ms autostereoscopic film so soldiers can see mission-critical data in three dimensions. The Preliminary Advanced Information device is designed to show accurate terrain maps, relay the picture from a drone camera or bring up the occasional blast of Monday Night Football.
3M makes Mary Lou Jepsen's dreams come true, showers Pixel Qi with cash
Chances are you've heard plenty about Pixel Qi's super-efficient, transreflective displays. The odds are equally as high that you've never touched one before, either. Well, 3M aims to change all of that and make good on founder Mary Lou Jepsen's continued promises to get those screens out into the consumer wild. Infusing the LCD company with an undisclosed amount of cash, 3M's New Ventures investment arm is betting the combo of its Optical Systems Division's LCD film technology expertise and funding will not only ramp up production of the sunlight-readable color screens, but also innovate uses for it across "...consumer markets as well as digital signage and touch applications." It's a nice shot of confidence for the display maker's much-touted, albeit scarce tech, and could be the financial boost necessary to take Jepsen from underdog to industry heavyweight. We'll keep a close eye out for how this develops. In the meantime, you can jump past the break to read the hyperbolic PR for yourself.
IBM and 3M join forces to fab 3D microchips, create mini-silicon skyscraper valley
3D hype is fast wearing out its welcome, but there's at least one area of industry where the buzzed about term could usher in true innovation. Announced today as a joint research project, IBM and 3M will work towards the creation of a new breed of microprocessors. Unlike similar three-dimensional semiconductor efforts by Intel, the two newly partnered outfits plan to stack up to 100 layers of chips atop one another resulting in a microchip "brick." Under the agreement, IBM will contribute its expertise on packaging the new processors, while 3M will get to work developing an adhesive that can not only be applied in batches, but'll also allow for heat transfer without crippling logic circuitry. If the companies' boasts are to be believed, these powerhouse computing towers would cram memory and networking into a "computer chip 1,000 times faster than today's fastest microprocessor enabling more powerful smartphones, tablets, computers and gaming devices." That's a heady claim for a tech that doesn't yet exist, but is already taking swings at current faux 3D transistors. Official presser and video await you after the break.
3M reader concept looks familiar, begs you not to judge an ebook by its cover
This image purporting to be the current concept design for 3M's upcoming ereader looks awfully familiar. In fact, the similarities to the txtr reader we saw a couple of years back are pretty uncanny -- and they're likely more than skin deep, seeing as how 3M has been investing in the company. There's a decent chance, however, that the device will hit the market looking a bit different -- and hopefully with a few other changes on-board, since the txtr reader is now a bit ancient. One thing does seem fairly likely: the device will probably play nicely with 3M's recently announced Cloud Library lending service. You didn't expect 3M to let other companies have all the fun, did you?
3M announces Cloud Library e-book lending service for '21st century' libraries
Both Amazon and Sony have already hopped aboard the e-book library lending train and now, it looks like they'll have to make room for 3M, as well. Yesterday, the company announced a new Cloud Library e-book lending service that will allow users to browse and borrow digital books directly from their iPads, Nooks and Android-based tablets. Under the program, 3M will outfit local libraries with its own software, hardware and e-book collection, which bibliophiles will be able to access via special apps, or 3M's new eReaders, which will be synced with available digital content. The company is also planning to install so-called Discovery Terminal download stations in libraries, allowing visitors to leaf through the collection from a touch-based interface. Thus far, both Random House and IPG have signed on to the initiative, though licensing details remain murky. There's also no word on when or where the service will launch, but 3M's Discovery Terminal and iPad app will be on display next month in New Orleans, at the American Library Association's Annual Conference. Full presser after the break.
3M Uniformity Tape improves lighting quality on LED edge-lit LCDs, lowers production costs
Ever seen a display like the one on the left? That's long been a pesky phenomenon -- known as "head-lighting" -- with many LED edge-lit LCD panels, and 3M's new Uniformity Tape wants to make sure it won't be around for much longer. Basically, the tape sticks onto an LCD's internal light guide, and its printed-on optical pattern disperses each LED's light path at wider angles. This allows for up to three times the distance between each LED, while still maintaining an even all-around brightness level across the panel. There are other benefits to this as well considering future LCD panels could use fewer LEDs -- cutting manufacturing costs, and raising eco-friendliness. Hopefully the tape actually ends up working as well as the photo illustrates, but for now, you can view the full press release by clicking past the break.
3M's 32-inch display with 10-finger multitouch steps out at CeBIT (video)
Though there are bigger multitouch screens out there -- and ones that can support more simultaneous touch points -- 3M's brand new C3266PW is the company's largest, said to be suited for industrial-strength installations with multiple simultaneous users (the company is quick to note that the ultra-wide 178-degree viewing angle along both axes is great for that, since folks can crowd around and start touching). They demoed the new unit here at CeBIT in two ways: three of them in a row on a "cascade table" with one high, one slanted, and one low, and another separate unit mounted on a solo kiosk at roughly eye level. The table's set up as a multi-display Windows box running a tech demo with maps, images, and videos that can be flicked between screens, pinched, and zoomed; the kiosk, meanwhile, is running a rudimentary flight simulator designed to demonstrate all ten points of multitouch capability at once with a finger-based aircraft control scheme (not the way you'd really design a game, but a good demo nonetheless). 3M points out that touch response -- the amount of time that it takes the screen to actually recognize that it's been touched -- is an issue in the industry, and it's not something that we really think about as users; if a gesture is laggy, we just assume the processor isn't up to the task or the software sucks. The C3266PW is rated at a relatively brisk 12ms recognition time, and while the company has other products with even quicker ratings, we definitely noticed the lack of lag as we played around (of course, the computers powering the displays have plenty to do with that). We've come to associate good capacitive displays with glossy glass and resistive with matte, but that's really not a fair assessment -- this one has a non-glare "anti-stiction coating" that, as its name implies, makes your fingers glide like butter. It might not be great for a phone, but it works well for a display of this size that's probably going to be used in public installations and potentially handled by hundreds of people a day. Follow the break for 3M's press release and video of both setups! %Gallery-118148%
3M touts capacitive touchscreens with tiny bezels, 10x faster responsiveness
Add another one to the (short) list of obscure things that slipped our net at CES. 3M, a company concerned with the materials and components that go into your delicious new gadgets, spent its time in Vegas this month discussing a new way for building capacitive touchscreen panels. By employing silver as its conducting material, 3M says it has made it possible to shrink the circuits at the edge of a touch panel by a whole order of magnitude, resulting in finger-friendly screens unhampered by bulky bezels. Additionally, due to silver's high conductivity, response times have been shown to dip down as low as 6ms, which is ten times speedier than the currently used Indium Tin Oxide stuff. It's arguable that neither advancement is revolutionary today, as bezels serve a purpose in providing a gripping surface for slate devices and touch responsiveness is currently constrained by software lag more than hardware capabilities, but 3M sure looks to have a nice building block for the future. The future being 2012, according to the company's estimates.
3M Shoot 'n Share camcorder projector gets reviewed, does what it says on the box
You should know by now that the 3M Shoot 'n Share is aptly named: it shoots 720p video and stills, and it shares with a 640 x 480 built-in pico projector. Simple, yes? What you might not know is how well the thing actually works, and for that we have a helpful review from PicoProjector-info. It basically confirms any fears you might've had about the combination: it's not the best pocket camcorder, and it's not the best pico projector (even 3M's own similarly-specced MPro-150 model bests it). The good news is that it absolutely works, and is certainly passable in both of its stated aims, along with being fairly easy to operate. Not too bad for $300.
3M Shoot 'N Share does just that: shoots 720p, shares with its built-in pico
3M may have snuck out two pico projectors for the guy in the boardroom yesterday, but its latest handheld is clearly designed for after-hour usage. Figuring it can leverage its projector roots and jump right on into the camcorder / camera side of things, the company's Shoot 'N Share packs a 5 megapixel sensor that can capture 720p MP4 video as well as take stills. Once you're done recording, you can tap the capacitive projector button and display it on the wall (or in our style, on someone's forehead). We figured with only 14 lumens of brightness it would be fairly dim, but some recorded video was actually bright enough to make out in a fairly light room. However, it only projects at 640 x 480, though we guess for $299 we didn't expect much more. The projector... er, camera, has a microSD card slot and HDMI jack on its edges, but it's definitely chunkier than we'd like. Hit the shots below to decide for yourself and the press release after the break for a few extra details. %Gallery-102474%
3M MP160 and MP180 pico projectors bring business casual to your pocket, sort of
The pico projector has always walked a fine line -- the smaller they are, the less features they typically boast. 3M's been cranking out the picos for a long time now, and its just outed two new ones firmly aimed at the business crowd. The MP160 and MP180 are both small (no surprises there), with the MP180 being the most full-featured of the two. That one packs WiFi, a touchscreen, Bluetooth, an integrated MP3 player, 4GB of storage, an SD slot and USB for all your quick, on-the-go projecting needs. The stripped down MP160 doesn't have any of those extras, but both feature external speakers and audio output. As far as the actual projectors are concerned, but the MP160 and MP180 have 30 lumens of brightness and a two-hour battery life with SVGA resolution -- a good showing for projectors of this type. Both are available for pre-order at 3M right now, with shipments in early October. The MP160 sells for $349 while the MP180 will run you $399. The full press release is below. Updated: We actually got to check out the MP180 for ourselves. There are some shots below, but the unit we saw was an early prototype and couldn't keep a connection to a WiFi network. The resistive touchscreen on the device was also pretty flaky. Still it looks like it'll be an interesting little gadget when 3M works out the kinks. %Gallery-102469%
Quanta and 3M's DST touchscreens like styli and fingers too
Spend a few days with a capacitive touch device and moving back to resistive can feel a bit... clumsy. Quanta and 3M are saying they have created a new type of touch sensitive screen that could make capacitive feel relatively just as vague, what they're calling dispersive signal technology. DST is a layer of "specially-designed glass" that detects the pressure of a finger or a stylus (or, probably, other things too) with high precision, all without making the display thicker. We're not sure how another layer could not make things at least a little bit beefier, but it at least won't be an expensive addition, with DigiTimes saying "consumers should have no difficulty accepting the price." There are, however, no comments on how well consumers will handle the other stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, and depression. Remember, we're here for you.
3M's PMP-packing MPro 150 pico projector gets a partially positive review (video)
The pico projectors just keep on coming, and now it's time for the 3M MPro 150 to shine. It caught our eye back at CES thanks to its ability to play media, presentations, and even display spreadsheets all from internal memory -- no PC required. Now that ability has been given a thorough evaluation by PicoProjector-info.com and, while the overall performance of the projector was found to be good, it didn't quite deliver thanks to a VGA resolution. That simply didn't push enough pixels to render much business content, and the onboard media compatibility options disappointed as well. Build quality was said to be high and image quality good, but overall this one doesn't seem to live up to its $350 pricetag. You can see the thing in action after the break, or hit the source link for all the review details.
3M's MPro150 pico projector now shipping to highly-mobile presenters everywhere (update: not quite yet!)
We caught a quick glimpse of 3M's MPro150 at CES a few weeks back, and while the performance of this pico projector didn't exactly blow our minds, we were quite intrigued by its ability to give PowerPoint presentations without a laptop or, indeed, any wires at all -- assuming your speech will be through before the thing's 90 minute battery is. It has 1GB of internal memory, plenty for slideshows filled with the most tacky of sound effects, and 3M even includes a 2GB microSD card to boot. But, for the $395 asking price, we're thinking that was the least it could do. Update: Seems someone jumped the gun a bit, and 3M has clarified that shipments have yet to begin. Should be soon, though.
3M rolls out MPro 150 pocket projector with 1GB of inbuilt storage
3M just got done pushing out its MPro 120, and here at CES we're already feasting our eyes on the MPro 150. For all intents and purposes, this is just an MPro 120 with 1GB of internal storage and a microSD expansion slot. We spotted it over at CES Unveiled, and while the VGA video wasn't anything special, the ability to open and display PDFs, Excel files and PowerPoint documents (in addition to the traditional movie and audio files) was indeed a nice add for the traveling salesperson. Hit up the full release after the break if you're thirsty for more details, and you should see it ship next month for just under $400. %Gallery-81594%
3M unveils 10-finger multitouch LCD display at CES
3M's just announced it'll unveil its previously gabbed about multitouch LCD -- at CES 2010 which, if you live under a rock and don't know anything at all, is just getting under way in Las Vegas. The beautifully named 3M Display M2256PW is a 22-inch, high def (1680 x 1050 resolution) multitouch LCD for professionals (and professional consumers) who require up to 10-finger input with a fast response time. The Windows 7-compatible display also boasts DVI and VGA video inputs, an audio input, and USB ports. 3M is set to show off some conceptual applications currently in development for its platform at CES as well, so we're pretty excited to see this one in action. Keep an eye here, we'll be checking it out any day now! Full press release is after the break.
3M optical film for greener LCDs making an appearance at FPD International 2009
Not happy with the green TV movement so far? 3M promises its latest Vikuiti Optical Film technology will save 32% more energy in LCD screens under 40-inches, without cutting into image quality, while enhancing the viewing angle and color uniformity. Checking it out before this film makes its way into the latest LCDs will require a trip to the FPD International show next week in Japan, where the it will also show off film intended for autostereoscopic (no glasses) 3D handhelds, but just a note, tearing off a piece and sticking it on your VIZIO at home won't help, we've tried that.
3M's MPro 120 pocket projector fights the good fight at CEATEC (video)
3M's MPro 120 didn't really add a whole lot of spice to the currently drab pocket projector lineup, boasting a simple VGA resolution, 4:3 aspect ratio and image quality suitable for presentations alone. Granted, the 12 lumens and 4 hours of battery life both trump figures on the decidedly impressive SHOW WX (which has 10 lumens and 2 hours of life), but in the wide world of beamers, it's the picture quality that matters most. We took a peek at the latest MPro here in Japan, and while the results were less than impressive underneath the lights, the sub-$330 street price in the US is definitely admirable. If you'll recall, the laser / PicoP-based SHOW WX is slated to retail right around $500, while this bugger can be found right now in trusted e-tailers for over a Benjamin less. 'Course, 3M might want to inform its booth attendant of this little matter, as the (erroneous) $600 price quote we got from a certain someone definitely shocked us momentarily. Video's after the break.%Gallery-74851%
3M debuts MPro 120 pocket projector and awesome ad simultaneously
As you may already be aware, we're part of an elite minority who are generally smitten with pocket projectors. Sure, they haven't found their niche of "usefulness" with the wider world, but that doesn't stop them from being cool to us. 3M's just debuted a new one -- the MPro 120 -- a follow-up to the MPro 110. The MPro 120 projects 12 lumens of brightness (with VGA resolution), a 4:3 aspect ratio, and up to 4 hours of battery life. The MPro is currently pre-ordering for a September 10th delivery in the UK, for £260 (about $423). No word on availability in the US, but we are extremely fond of the projector's rather insane ad, which is after the break.[Via Engadget Spanish]
