TI Pushes New DLP Projector Applications
Texas Instruments (TI) DLP Products plans to demonstrate a range of consumer front projection products that offer new features and functionality.
Texas Instruments (TI) DLP Products plans to demonstrate a range of consumer front projection products that offer new features and functionality. According to the company, various DLP manufacturing customers already plan to develop products that highlight each of the DLP innovations, including lamp-free LED home theater projectors, 3-D projectors, gaming projectors, Pico projectors, and pocket projectors.
A lamp-free LED projector uses a Phatlight LED light source from Luminus Devices to deliver 1080p picture quality. TI maintains the cost savings of LEDs’ reduced power consumption and the elimination of maintenance costs for replacement lamps and filter changes are significant developments. TI says the company is currently working with brands and ODM partners to release the LED products next year.
TI officials said 3-D front projection is made possible by the DLP chip’s fast switching speed, while the 120 Hz refresh rate permits a flicker-free image. Such a projector also is fully compatible with 1080p inputs. TI reports that Projectiondesign is currently shipping its first 3-D DLP projector, the F10 AS3D, for scientific visualization, simulation, and entertainment environments.
The company’s vision for a DLP personal/gaming projector is a portable projector that is small and lightweight yet bright enough that users can use it to create a picture size that measures in feet rather than inches. The new DLP-based Lenovo My Projector’s mobility opens it to a range of uses, such as big picture gaming, watching movies, viewing digital photos, and viewing video clips. It was specifically developed to meet the demands of a personal projector and will be available from Lenovo before the end of the year.
The DLP Pico chipset is beginning to power a growing number of handheld projectors, says the company. Optoma and Toshiba recently announced their plans to ship miniature stand-alone projectors using this technology to display composite video from a variety of handheld and mobile devices, it adds. Because the chipset uses LED illumination, the products will be instant-on and won’t require the maintenance typically associated with lamp-based projection products.
TI DLP is also releasing technology for what it calls the world’s brightest DLP pocket projectors. Users can easily connect a DLP pocket projector to a DVD player, digital cameras, and notebook computers, and a model from LG offers a built-in media player. The newest pocket projectors featuring high brightness, solid-state LED illumination are from Samsung (SP-P400B) and LG (HS102).
“DLP Products has a proven legacy of ‘firsts’ in the market and the projectors being demonstrated this year are examples of that commitment to innovation and commitment to our customers,” said Lars Yoder, vice president and business manager, TI’s DLP Front Projection Business Unit.
