An OLED mini projector has been created at tech thinktank The Fraunhofer Institute that could enable high-quality image projection from mobile phones using a fraction of the power of current technology and providing much brighter pictures.
OLED (Organic Light-Emiting Diode) displays are featuring in several new handsets and are becoming a popular choice due to their low power requirements and bright, crisp display quality compared to traditional LED screens. Boffins at Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute – birthplace of the MP3 codec, fact fans – have figured out a way of using OLED to create a new type of mini projector that could find its way into the next generation of mobiles.
Most mini projectors eat up power because they require a powerful lightsource to throw images across the room. OLED is already much brighter than the typical display and the Fraunhofer chaps use a system of lenses to scale it up to around 10,000 candelas per square meter in monochrome and 5,000 candelas in full colour.
The prototype is only 2.5 cm long and has a diameter of 1.8cm, and should be simple to squeeze into a mobile-phone-sized device. No word on when this will be ready for commercial use, but we can hardly wait.
TBC | TBC | Fraunhofer Institute (via Gizmag)
Sounds promising and the next big thing for mobiles. My only worry is there could be a danger of chavs/kids on buses using these mobile projectors as “digital graffiti” and projecting images and/or videos or nude women or whatever?
I hate it when chavs on the bus think it’s cool to have rave music blasting from their phone, now having something projected on the ceiling of the bus would drive me crazy!
Also, the reason i put this as i just remebered about the “fathers for justice” ad campaign where they projected some sort of image on the walls of the houses or parliament. I can’t remember the full details, but i can imagine this stuff happening everywhere with stuff like pr0n videos being projected onto the front walls of shops from idiots with projectors in their mobile phones.