Microvision's ultra-miniature laser-scanning engine, the PicoP, is small enough and draws sufficiently little power to be embedded directly into mobile devices, such as the SHOW WX pocket-sized projector. It is capable of producing high-resolution, colour-rich, DVD-quality images as large as 100 inches across. The pre-production version, seen at the GlobalPress Summit, is a tiny laser projector. It measures just 118x60x14mm—no larger than an iPhone, says the company. It is battery-operated and can project a full-colour, WVGA 848x480pixel, DVD-quality image for people on the go who want to spontaneously view mobile TV, movies, photos and presentations. Any surface can become a screen: walls, ceilings or other surfaces, even pillows and cushions. From any portable media device with TV-Out or VGA functionality, users can plug SHOW-WX into portable media players, mobile phones, notebooks and other mobile media devices to transform a surface into a screen. The projector does not require a focal lens, so displayed images are always in focus on any surface, whether the image is 12 or 100inches, claims the company. The expected battery life is about two hours. The heart of the device is the PicoP display engine, which combines two-dimensional MEMS (microelectromechanical-system) light-scanning technologies; red, blue and green lasers; optics; and electronics to comprise a small, thin, low-power laser projector module for embedded mobile devices and plug-and-play accessory devices. A bi-directional MEMS scanning mirror, a silicon device that has a tiny mirror at its centre, is connected to small flexures that allow it to oscillate vertically and horizontally to capture—for imaging—or reproduce—to display—an image, pixel-by-pixel.
