Looking at the Next Generation Product Characteristics from the Development of 3M Micro Projector

With regard to the visual products, the endless stream of innovations and continuous innovations in recent decades have been all the efforts to promote the advancement of technology and move closer to everyday life. Such as: digital cameras, video cameras, LCD monitors, LCD TVs, projectors, pico projectors, and so on. Each product is moving in different directions, some are smaller and some are bigger and bigger, but at the same time, they all strive to improve product performance and reduce power consumption. Micro-projection technology is also the same, under the "science and technology progress" of the giant wheel, continue to move toward higher goals:

Higher luminous efficiency: not only to increase the brightness, lower power consumption is also important smaller size: can be embedded in a wide range of electronic products. More in line with the "light, thin, stylish" design requirements super close range: in the limited distance to shoot the largest possible picture HD picture: 720P, 1080P

3D projection: jump out of the plane, into a more real world More applications, better user experience The most important thing is that these technologies require stable quality, the fastest commercialization, the trend to adapt to the trend of 3M from the beginning of 2009 Released the first generation of micro-projectors - Mpro110, to today's third-generation micro-projectors MP160 and MP180, she is constantly innovating and developing, but at the same time is also re-positioning the concept of micro-projection. Mpro is an acronym for Mini Projector. Compared with traditional projectors, Mpro has a smaller and more portable meaning. The third generation of MP projectors MP160 and MP180 are short for Mobile Projector. Although only a two-letter difference, the meaning has changed quietly. The third-generation micro projectors MP160 and MP180 emphasize mobility and are not only portable, but also have a certain endurance to meet specific applications.

3M Mobile Projector Road Map

Looking back at the development path of the 3M Micro Projector, you will discover the greatness of "Moore's Law." From 7 lumens in 2009 to 15 lumens in 2010, to 32 lumens in 2011, the brightness doubles every year; from VGA to SVGA, the resolution also gradually increases. Even more commendable is still guaranteeing a minimum of 2 hours of battery life. From the development history of 3M pico projectors, it is not difficult to predict what features the next generation of products will have.

Here we need to understand the MP180, which is the latest micro projector released by 3M. She cleverly combined many fashion elements and created a new projection world.

32 stream brightness, wireless WiFi, Bluetooth, touch, SVGA resolution (800X600), support for Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) and Adobe PDF documents, these are features of the MP180.

MP180 users can use the WiFi to access the Internet, watch online videos, download files; also use Bluetooth to connect with mobile phones, and share the photos with friends in a timely manner; before the speech, copy the contents of the speech to the MP180 in advance. To heavy computers, but also to give customers a new experience to enhance mutual feelings; is a set of business and entertainment in a model.

3M MP180

The success of the 3M Micro Projector further promotes the development of the optical engine, and the optical engines that 3M has released are verified through its own mass production. The latest optical engine is coming soon - the brightness of the MM210, 18.5 lumens, requires only 2 watts of power consumption, and the volume is only 10.4cc (displacement), so in such a limited space can have such high light efficiency can be considered in the industry First-rate. It also has SVGA (800X600) resolution, a 350:1 contrast ratio, and can achieve 20 lumens of brightness at a 2.5W LED power consumption. The thickness is only 10.5mm. This power consumption and volume fully meet the demanding requirements of today's lithium-ion products for low power consumption, can save more power for high-definition video, mobile TV and other aspects of processing, but also can make the product's industrial design more lightweight fashion .

3M has worked in the optics industry for many years. Its advanced PBS (Polarization Beam Splitter) technology, aspheric mirror technology and LED light collection system have made outstanding contributions in reducing the system volume and improving the light efficiency. It is 3M. Optical engines can provide powerful support for applications in embedded systems.

The MM210 uses the LCoS panel. The panel is only 0.37 inches in size. Different from the past, it separates the image processing unit into a separate driver chip. The benefits of this panel can reduce the cost and power consumption of LCoS. At the same time, the driver supports multiple different models. The resolution panel will be upward compatible when upgrading the panel in the future. The interface of the driver chip is simple, the video interface uses the common RGB888 interface, and the communication uses the IIC interface. The user can access the registers of the LCoS driver chip through the IIC interface, modify the gamma value of the panel and the Duty Cycle of the RGB three-color LED lamp. At the same time it will also generate 3 sync signals (PWM wave) to the LED driver chip, so that the LED light color and LCoS display image synchronization.

The LED part uses 4 LED chips, which are red, green, green and blue, and requires 4 channels of LED driver chips to work. The maximum current of each channel should be less than 1.5A. The following is a diagram of its system framework:

MM210 Drive System Framework Currently 3M optical engine is not only used in 3M's own products, but also actively develop new customers and applications. With the rise and popularity of Pad products, we will also see products combining micro-projection and Pad appear on the market. This will be a new trend again.

I remember that there was such a concept product many years ago. There was a computer, no screen, no keyboard, and the size of only two popular smartphones was so large. His screen was projected by micro-projection, and the keyboard was also passed through the red LCD. Projected and detected by the infrared sensor input. At that time, I was very excited about this product. Just two days before the customer to see such a product, although not so sci-fi, it uses the Android system, 3M optical engine, through Bluetooth to connect the keyboard and mouse. Although the processing chip is still not powerful enough, it is also quite awesome for simple business office and online entertainment.

If 2011 is the Pad Year, what year will 2012 be?