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CES was all about the connected display, streaming here and streaming there, by the time those things start becoming mainstream then so will NFC. walk up to a display, tap it, you have control over it now.
prices of panels, they offer infinitely better quality than a projected image, hell you had to turn the light off to get decent results out of that thing. margins on panels are terrible and getting worse, differentiation will start happening at the connectivity level. be prepared for much smarter displays then we have now.
Even at the $500 launch price this product is amazing value and I for one will probably be buying several.
Because it's a beam of light from lasers it's always in focus, incredibly bright and the lasers have an immense lifetime unlike the bulbs used in LCD/DLP projectors.
The Microvision laser projector seriously impresses me (and come on, you know how cynical I am!) but I'm not at all excited by those little DLP projectors that are just hitting the market... they are built on an old technology that isn't translating to the mobile world very well at all (for example LED lamps are not nearly as bright as the metal halide ones used in the desktop versions)
Too niche, too geeky, too many technical problems.
Anyway, at least your other video with you beating the piss out a mobile was awesome and even sold me!
Where lasers do have a place is in tiny projectors, I disagree that they are too niche, geeky and have technical problems. There is a massive market for these amongst the powerpoint crowd and I wouldn't be surprised if, when the price drops below $250, we see people using them for entertainment.
I did ask Russell if I could hit one of his prototypes with a hammer but he didn't seem too keen!
Loads of people pay that much for a crap 1-week holiday in some package tour hellhole.
This does have serious wow factor, and the use cases on planes, trains, in the back of taxi's, other cars, in the pub, at parties, are too numerous to mention. Using a high-gain sheet of A4-size material that could be folded/rolled up, you'd get an image perfectly viewable in normal indoor light conditions.
It's been a long time coming (I saw early demos of this nearly 3 years ago) so it's great to hear it'll be commercial this year.
/m
(steps back and lets Dan Lane re-assume faboi pose)
1. Due to the slight difference between the refresh rate of our camera and the laser scanlines on the Microvision projector the image appears to flicker, this does not happen in "real life" and is a side-effect of recording it with a camera.
2. Our camera doesn't handle low-light situations well and therefore doesn't do the Microvision projector any favours... IMHO it still looks amazing!
Needless to say, I absolutely LOVE this product. I saw an earlier prototype version a while ago and have been driving the rest of the MIR team mad ever since I heard we were getting a proper demo.
Apologies to the whole MWC press team who had to put up with me pestering them to let us into their nice conference hall and figure out the complicated lighting desk (which was labelled in spanish) to demo this properly ;)
This unit outperforms the comparable Samsung unit and the actual projector is about a 3rd of the size of an iPhone.
Oh and yes, MIR is the only show to use an unreleased Nokia N97 for lighting effects. Awesome :-)
Ha! You beat me to it.. <grin>
future' :-)
Whatley... you make me laugh.
2009/2/23 Disqus <>
"It redefines the elevator pitch..."
As soon as he said that, I got it.
Every week I speak to sales guys or CEOs or new companies looking for funding...
If a businessman can approach a VC and deliver his entire pitch (slides an' all) in virtually no time at all with a pocket-sized piece of equipment, then wow - that's one thing they have over the next guy.
Seriously. That's how this device speaks to me.
Fast forward a bit and now imagine this thing is embedded in the bezel of a laptop (or better, a NETBOOK!), or in the case of my next video game system. A PSP with this embedded, etc. There's just so many ways to use this technology, outside of just connecting it to a cell phone (which will be fantastic, too).
I'm sold, hook line and sinker. I'm also fascinated to know the difference in the laser and the dlp technologies, as that's going to be a major factor.
Not since CRT technology have we been graced with such amazing image quality from a display device...and it fits in your pocket! Only 5 months to wait now! :)
The elevator pitch is a fantastic phrase and really shows where these things are going.
For home movies I don't mind having the projector on the ceiling, my 100" 1080p setup isn't going to get overtaken for a while, but the sales people with a phone/eepc and one of these must be frothing at the mouth to buy them.
I mean, look at those specs http://www.microvision.com/showwx/specs.html
Yes, I'd love one built in to my BlackBerry, but I'd be just as happy blutacking it to my ceiling.
I don't think I'd wait until that came down in price before buying one, to be honest... $500 sounds pretty reasonable to me.
but what if i dont a have media centre screen or dan lanes stomach to project on?
Thank you *so* much for dropping by, great to connect on Twitter today :)
A couple of things -
1) Would it be possible nearer release to get a demo/review copy for an upcoming show? We would be more than happy to return it once we'd put it through its paces and I'm certain that'd make a certain Mr Lane a VERY happy man indeed! ;D
2) We had a rather odd comment on the HD version of this post - (see here - http://www.mobileindustryreview.com/2009/02/mir...) from one of Microvision's shareholders. Can you confirm who he is and why he dislikes us so?
Much appreciated! :)
J
1) Microvision's system requires an extremely expensive green laser. None of its competitors do.
2) Microvision's projector suffers badly from laser speckle and image distortion. It seems as though they try to disguise this by projecting onto people's shirts, as in this video. None of its competitors has this problem.
3) Microvision's projector cannot be classified as Class 1 eye safe. Every other available pico projector can.
4) The colour depth of the Microvision projector is just 16 bit, which leads to banding and aliasing in the image.
rolling.
First thought is that this would be superb for taking my video collection along to a hotel room - watching DVDs on a laptop isn't that satisfactory.
Secondary to that would be - well, sharing media content with friends - it's not that uncommon to do 'hey, have you seen ...' and show them a pic of ... almost anything. Or a webpage, or whatever. Splash that on a wall instead.
Can you tell us what triggered the meeting?
Were you approached by Sony Ericsson or Microvision?
or...
Did you court the relationship?
Just to be clear:
Sony Ericsson has *nothing* to do with the meeting itself. To clarify - We wanted to demo the Microvision projector on a big screen. It just so happened that the person who was running access to the room we demo'd in was the exact same person that gained us access to a Sony Ericsson preview party late last year.
That is the only connection.
Regarding who triggered the meeting, I think you'd have to ask Ben and/or Dan.
Guys?
The meeting was aranged via Lisa Figlioli. She works at Vetrano
Communications who represent Microvision. It was a bulk e-mail that
(probably) went out to all registered press attendees of the event -
we got about 800 other similar requests.
SonyEricsson had no involvement at any point. The only reason they
were mentioned was that the person who provided access (literally, was
working at the media centre reception desk) to the room we filmed in
had previously invited us to a SE event which regular readers would
have seen us cover. The reason for mentioning this person was solely
to highlight how lucky we were to be able to test with a big screen -
it was not planned and would not have been possible if it weren't for
a friend of the show.
If we really had a source to indicate that any major phone company was
pimping this product do you not think it would be headlined on the
front page of the site by now?
It's a very exciting-looking product, but could the shareholders in
the crowd take a deep breath and relax...?
We wanted the lights turned down in the big room we were in. So James spoke a guy he knew whose day job is PR for a company that represents Sony Ericsson amongst others. James knows the guy. I know the guy. He was just being helpful. He arranged for his colleague to contact the Mobile World Congress lighting guy to come along and switch the lights off for us during the filming.
This PR guy didn't -- to my knowledge -- even *meet* with MVIS guy.
The reference to Sony Ericsson is thus wholly in passing. We were thanking the guy for his help on camera, that's all.
MVIS PR contacted us directly about the interview as they have been doing in the run up to most shows.
Nothing AT ALL to do with Sony Ericsson.
Are we clear now, Martin?
Here's what promted the "tediously detailed" response needed.....
From Sturocks...>>>
Re: VIDEO FROM MWC 24-Feb-09 07:34 pm "Just like Sony Ericsson who turned the two techno geeks onto Microvision"
Martin...>>>"And just where did it say Sony Ericson turned those two guys onto MVIS except in your simple mind? Could it have been that the guy who organized that Sony/Ericson party was simply organizing the room for them to demo the SHOW WX in?
Sturocks...>>>No that's not the case. Ask them
Outlawjosiewales...>>>Not Sony 25-Feb-09 05:06 pm "Dan and James, thanks for the MWC report. You mentioned that the Sony Ericsson folks set up the Hannigan /SHOWWX presentation for you.
Can you tell us what triggered the meeting?
Were you approached by Sony Ericsson or Microvision?
or...
Did you court the relationship?
James Whatley...>>>
Hey there,
Just to be clear:
Sony Ericsson has *nothing* to do with the meeting itself. To clarify - We wanted to demo the Microvision projector on a big screen. It just so happened that the person who was running access to the room we demo'd in was the exact same person that gained us access to a Sony Ericsson preview party late last year.
That is the only connection.
Regarding who triggered the meeting, I think you'd have to ask Ben and/or Dan"
Sturocks...>>>Re: Not Sony 25-Feb-09 05:22 pm Worthless lies from another hellbaby id? sturocks
Martin...>>>Re: Not Sony 26-Feb-09 01:17 pm Here's your proof Stu.
Judge for yourself...From the fellas at MIR themselves...>>>
Ben Smith 6 hours ago
"Dan was aware of the product from media coverage at previous shows, so was keen to see the product. We got an offer of a meeting from Microvision's PR people (along with about 800 other invites as is the norm for these shows...), accepted and that was it.
We're not shareholders and we're not promoting Microvision any more than any other firm wed were impressed with at MWC."
http://tinyurl.com/aocwth
Re: Not Sony 25-Feb-09 05:32 pm Why would you think it's true. The moron didn't provide a link to the statement on the website. Look for yourself. No such statement is made. Rating :
sturocks
I hope you understand how and why we needed to know exactly the lack of any connection between Sony/Ericson and MVIS that could only come from you guys.
Being born in Leeds myself I knew you guys coudn't be bought by anyone especially after Evan said what he did about putting up ads from a company whose product he blasted. I've always said people can take many things for us but you have to give them your integrity...no one can take it if you don't give it to them. Keep up the good work ...your report was great and Ben's interview of Nokia's VP was nothing short of fantastic. I bet it was one of the best interviews the VP has ever done. He looked like he enjoyed it more than Ben. Great questions he's probably never been asked....having the same dull ones over and over. Can't wait for Ben's written interview with Russel.
Thanks - sounds like you have a troll problem over there. If it's that easy to manipulate prices or opinion maybe I'm in the wrong game :-)
Ben
2009/2/27 Disqus <>:
http://www.microvision.com/showwx/buzz.html
Better living through technology indeed xD
(Except in our house where our LCD TV is on a narrow piece between two big patio windows, and therefore has a curtain behind each side... D'OH)
When can grab one ???
Cheers,
Buat Duit Dengan Blog
In a couple years, every cell phone will have a projector imbedded, at least for still images. Digital cameras will, too. The next generation of gaming systems won't need to connect to a tv, they'll be able to project on a wall or wherever. A business could use a projector for marketing displays that the customers couldn't mess with. The possibilities are amazing.