EETimes.com – Aussie IPO firm claims laser TV will zap plasma, LCD
Arasor International Ltd., a company soon to list on the Australian stock exchange, has claimed it has developed an optical integrated circuit that is key to the production of a laser television that could replace plasma and LCD televisions in the consumer market.
According to reports referenced on its website Arasor’s television technology offers double the color gamut and clarity at half the cost and a quarter of the power consumption of comparable large LCD and plasma televisions.
A demonstration of a Mitsubishi-manufactured prototype laser display was given Tuesday (Oct. 10) prior to Arasor’s expected initial public offering of stock next week. The laser television is not expected to come to market in 2006 but could be ready in time for the 2007 holiday buying season
the key to the story is here:
And despite Arasor’s recent demonstration it is not clear exactly how the display works and what part of the engineering has been done by Arasor (Mountain View, Calif.), what part by Novalux (Sunnyvale, Calif.) and what part by Mitsubishi. No references could be found to how red, green and blue lasers are made to raster scan.
Anything is possible, but this seems sketchy for now.
related links:
Corporate website here.
The Australian
This seems to be a solid state laser light source for projection TV’s and video projectors. Seems like a good idea to me. Lasers will be smaller, more effiecient than big light bulbs and require less power. This seems to be a reasonable approach and good choice for basing designs. New kind of TV….well not really.
Steering the lasers could be done by a mirror (as in a laser printer), but that might provide some interesting reliability issues.
Steering a lens (have a look at mechanical auto-stabilizers for camera lenses) is also fairly simple today but might be expensive to build for a five to ten year service life of relatively constant use.
Those little micro-mirrors that are used in some projectors seem like the most likely technique, although how you’d do any of that within a “flat screen” device seems to be a big question.
If I were king, I think I’d use a zillion itsy lasers firing into a matte-surfaced piece of plastic. But all that really does v.s. an LCD device is add brightness. ‘Course, with additional brightness available, a broader color range might be possible. (LCD’s subtract light; a pixel is turned on to “engage” a filter. This thing would work more like a CRT – turning a pixel on to add light.)
Interesting to think about….
Regards,
As high-output LEDs get brighter, this issue wil be mooted to some degree. Be it LED or Laser, solid-state lighting makes far more sense than incandescent backlighting or light engines for DLP- and LCD-based TVs.
2 I think I’d use a zillion itsy lasers firing into a matte-surfaced piece of plastic.
Careful they don’t sue you for patent infringement. 🙂
I wonder if it will be a flat-screen, or deeper cabinet like the DLP sets?
2 Steering the lasers could be done by a mirror …, but that might provide some interesting reliability issues.
Not any more than DLP sets, would it?
If it is a flat/thin screen, will it be more on the SED model – but instead of individual electron-emitters, there would be an array of tiny lasers?
1080p is about 2-MPixels – so an array of 6-million lasers [2-million of each RGB color] would work.
From the article:
No references could be found to how red, green and blue lasers are made to raster scan.
Maybe it’s because they don’t? [raster scan, that is] 🙂
I say no.
I have watched enough sci-fi to know that lasers are dangerous.
Nuff said.
Sounds like a good idea that will drown due to corporate greed and overpriced license royalties…
someone read my mind..
if you have a red lazer, a blue lazer and a green lazer….
it’s time to make a kickass TV!
Lasers are dangersou but so are electron beams.ANd that was the standard for 50 yars. Leaded glass helped.
But this still seems scammy to me unless someone actually explains the technology.
Well, again, I don’t think this is really new type of TV. It is a projection TV with the “lamp” replaced with lasers. I think it will be a real product since Mitsubishi seems to have announced a product:
http://mediablog.mail2web.com/gadgetmaniac/blog/archive/2006/02/2795/
http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-6482184.html
So, yes, the claims by the marketing people are exagerated –no surprise…but there does seem to be something behind this idea. Not saying that Arasor International can pull it off but I think others can and will.
The science is done- plastic film that can conduct electricity I really waiting for this technology to happen
This is great information. Despite the other companies that were a part of bringing Laser TVs to the masses, Mitsbushi appears to have something that will be on store shelves soon. I wrote about it in more depth here: http://tvlampsnbulbs.com/2008/08/laser-tv-is-here-laservuealmost/
Samsung has been selling laser based dlp’s in 58 and 65 inch flavors for months now. $1800 to $2200 at Circuit City.
My crt based big screen is still going strong after 17 years. When it fades to a night light, I’ll be going laser.