Reiter's Mobile TV Report

DigiTimes stirs excitement over microprojectors in cellphones, MP3 players

Based on an unsourced article in DigiTimes, the blogosphere today is somewhat agog over the possibility of Apple and some other handset manufacturers integrating microprojectors into their products by the end of the year.

DigiTimes’ brief article reports the Taiwanese company Foxlink is developing microprojectors in cooperation with a handset vendor in Europe “according to sources with Taiwan handset makers.”  Foxlink has sent samples to the handset vendor, which might result in shipments in the fourth quarter of this year.

“International brand vendors, including Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Apple, reportedly all plan to launch handsets with built-in microprojectors by the end of this year, indicated the sources, adding that Foxlink is likely to benefit from the emerging trend due to its strong business relationships with Nokia and Apple,” DigiTimes reports.

Skeptical about Apple

I have written previously in this weblog and on other sites that I believe microprojectors will be significant to the development of mobile television/mobile video as well as valuable for a variety of business uses.  I’ve been surprised to see microprojectors integrated into a handful (one or two) of cellular phones this year because I thought only external microprojectors would be offered in 2009.

I don’t know whether integrated microprojectors will be available this year in brand name cellular phones, but I’m skeptical they will be offered by Apple in either the iPhones or iPods.  As Harry McCracken writes in Technologizer, “Projectors may be getting tinier, but they aren’t yet teensy enough to cram into a phone or MP3 player that’s as thin as the ones Apple likes to make.”

He also says, “Apple history shows that it’s not all that interested in adding exotic features that won’t be used much, and is almost never the first company to embrace a new technology.  (It tends to cheerfully sit on the sidelines while other companies make bleeding-edge products that are noble in their ambitions but frustrating in practice.)”

Microprojectors will become standard

I agree with those statements, but not with McCracken’s view about “how often would a real person want to project an image from an iPhone or iPod in the real world?”  My view is “very often.” 

I believe microprojectors inside high end phones will become a standard feature within a few years.  But the price, battery life and screen resolution must be good for mass market appeal.

If I were in the mobile TV business, I’d do whatever I could to encourage the development of integrated microprojectors.  External microprojectors that connect to a phone or other electronic device via a cable or wireless won’t  produce mass market interest.

In-Stat forecasts $1.1 billion picoprojector market by 2014

The research firm In-Stat forecasts the picoprojector market will reach $1.1 billion within five years, with cellular phones and accessory projectors as the largest categories.  I’ve written in a variety of articles that picoprojectors (or “microprojectors”) in cellular phones will become extremely popular and will foster mobile television — once performance improves and prices decrease.

Based on the firm’s report, “Embedded Picoprojectors to Break Out Worldwide,” manufacturers are developing LED and laser products.  Green lasers are one of the important technologies.

Companies offering picoprojectors include DisplayTech, Foxxcom, Light Blue Optics, Oculon, Optoma, Microvision, Toshiba, Texas Instruments and 3M.

David Chamberlain, an In-Stat analyst, says in the release, “Technological advances in miniaturization, signal processing and light sources — including green laser — are making picoprojectors a realistic feature for small battery powered devices like cellphones, media players, computing devices and other consumer electronics.”

External and integrated units

I’ve written about a variety of manufacturers, including Texas Instruments and Microvision (see below), as well as handset vendors, developing picoprojectors that will be external units connected via a cable to a cellular phone, such as for Japan’s KDDI, or integrated into the phone.

This year we’ll see both types of devices, although it’s still a nascent industry.  Picoprojectors need to offer greater resolution and brightness, less drain on the phone’s battery and decreases in price.

This year’s products are only for early adopters.  But the value of a cellular phone that’s able to project a large, bright, sharp image on any surface will be so useful that the technology is destined to become widespread when the problems are resolved.

Japanese external microprojector available for G9 cellular phone

Engadget has unearthed some information about an external microprojector for a G9 Japanese phone.  The IIDA projector (see below) connects to the phone via a cable and can display images from six inches to 63 inches.

The microprojector’s battery lasts about two hours and ten minutes and I think it’s for specific KDDI phones in Japan.

I’ve seen a few microprojectors, both external and integrated into a phone.  This is definitely the future, once the technology isn’t so basic and the prices aren’t so high.

PacketVideo debuts receiver for sending mobile TV to WiFi phones, media players

PacketVideo (owned by NextWave Wireless) has introduced a small external receiver (see left) that enables WiFi-enabled cellular phones and personal media players to receive mobile television programs in a variety of formats.  PacketVideo showed the device last month during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and shame on me for not seeing it (because I attended the show) or, at least, for not reading the press release.

The broadcast receiver will work with mobile TV protocols DVB-H, Qualcomm’s MediaFLO and TDtv.  It also works via WiMAX (see previous article about NextWave’s mobile TV WiMAX efforts), PacketVideo says.  Nokia Nseries phones, the Apple iPhone and HTC smartphones are compatible with the receiver, the company says.

“PV’s mobile receiver device decodes a digital TV signal and repurposes it for use on the phone, sending it via a wireless signal, such as WiFi, to a playback device.  The receiver uses specific, patented protocols to ensure optimum rendering of the TV signal on the playback device, and provides secure access to premium channels,” the release says.

Questions, questions

As PacketVideo notes, the device enables cellular phone users to have mobile TV without a handset that incorporates a mobile TV chipset.  The receiver uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery. 

However, are consumers willing to carry a receiver just to get mobile TV?  Also, how much will it cost and how well does it perform?  Lots of questions about the financial viability of this product.

For more information, check out PacketVideo’s demonstration on YouTube (see below).

Perhaps I’ll be able to see the receiver and learn more next month when I’m at the CTIA Wireless 2008 conference in Las Vegas.

Stowe Boyd suggests Bluetooth microphone to improve cellular video audio

At a great “pre-conference” dinner (all sorts of tapas [see below], several wines, main course, deserts) sponsored by Nokia for a group of bloggers (including me) before the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, I heard an interesting suggestion that, if implemented, could significantly improve cellular videos.

Stowe Boyd, social networking consultant at /Messages [no, the slash isn’t a typo] suggested to Nokia that they offer a Bluetooth microphone that connects to Nokia camera phones for improving the audio of videos.  The audio quality of cellular videos is often poor because the only microphone is built into the handset, which is often held too far from the subject(s) to produce good audio.

A video with poor picture quality but good audio is much better than great picture quality but poor audio.

How about it, Nokia?

If Nokia sold a small Bluetooth microphone for its camera phone, the mic be attached to the interviewee’s shirt, blouse or jacket.  That would be a huge help in improving audio quality.

Another blogger, Alec Saunders, who is CEO of VoIP startup iotum, noted that he has a wired microphone for his Sony camcorder.  A microphone attached via a camera phone via a cable is a bit more awkward, but the sound could be noticeably better than via WiFi.

Great idea.  Nokia, are you interested?

Polymer Vision unveils Readius: Five-inch flexible screen for reading, cellular

Polymer Vision is promoting Readius, a flexible monochrome screen that can be rolled out from a celluar phone to faciliate reading text (see left), according to The Washington Post.  It also can be used with mobile television technology, but I bet it’s not what you’d think.

The screen supports 16 levels of gray in a QVGA (320 x 240 resolution) and is five inches diagonal (see below).  The screen weighs about four ounces and Polymer Vision working to develop a GSM version for HSDPA networks.  The company says the battery lasts up to 30 hours of continuous reading, but I assume that’s not based on using the cellular radio.

The Washington Post says the device is somewhat difficult to use as a phone because it has only eight buttons.  However, Thomas van der Zijden, vice president of sales and marketing at Polymer Vision, says that’s not a problem because most people dial phone numbers already in the contacts lists and the device can be synchronized contacts on a computer via a cable or Bluetooth.

Difficulties

Yeah, right.  This is a case where a sales and marketing guy is making light of what seems to be a significant problem — using a phone as a phone.  Of course, the device being shown might not be the one that is commercially launched.

Also, the Readius can play audio files and be used as a traditional Web browser.  (I wonder how good the graphics capability is.)  It’s not inconceiveable that certain customers might value the product for its non-voice capabilities rather than voice.

For example, a significant number of tech-savvy users really like the HTC Advantage (see left), that incorporates a cellular phone but is valued more as a sub-subnotebook computer or an MID (Mobile Internet Device).  The Advantage isn’t designed to be a person’s primary phone.  Perhaps a Readius device would be carried in addition to a small phone.

Polymer Vision will be able to deliver its device to partners by the end of the second quarter for commercial products in the third quarter, the article says.

Multiple file formats

I haven’t seen the screen, but it can display pdf, HTML and ASCII text files, the article says.  It uses Windows CE (not one of my favorite mobile operating systems) and currently can use the Open Mobile Alliance’s 1.0 digital right management system.

Van der Zijden says the device’s price will be comparable to high end smart phones, such as the Apple iPhone and Nokia N95 8 GB version.  That would mean it could cost from $400 to $750.

Mobile TV tie-in

This a screen designed for reading, not for watching videos.  So where’s the mobile TV connection?  Polymer Vision is developing a version for Telecom Italia for use over DVB-H.

Telecom Italia has been broadcasting mobile TV since, I think, around the middle of 2006.  However, DVB-H can be used for more than transmitting videos.  Telecom Italia is looking at the Readius for displaying lots of text, such as newspapers that the cellular operator would transmit, the article says.

This is the sort of technology that looks “futuristic” today, but could quite possibly become more mainstrean in the next several years.  Indeed, many companies are working hard to enhance viewing multimedia on portable devices, such as projectors for cellular phones, as I’ve previously written.

The phone/portable media player of 2015 could look a lot different and be a lot easier on the eyes than today’s products.

3M shows tiny projector for displaying images from cellular phones

3M has announced a projection engine that’s less than half an inch thick (see left) that’s designed for such products as cellular phones.  The LED device can display images that are 40 inches or larger and is scheduled to be available in products early this year, according to the company’s press release.

“Each engine uses an advanced liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) electronic imager in conjunction with proprietary 3M optics technology,” the release says.  It can project images with VGA resolution.  3M will be showing the device at the Consumer Electronics Show.

An article in Gizmodo notes that Texas Instruments and Microvision also are developing projectors for portable devices.  Microvision, for example, has been showing prototypes of projectors that work when attached to cellular phones (see below).

Projectors certainly could help solve the problem of viewing photos and videos on tiny cellular phone screens.  I’m sure this would be an enormous hit with users for both consumer and business applications.

However, a lot of work still needs to be done, both integrating projectors inside phones as well as ensuring the battery life isn’t reduced to ten minutes!

Update (1/7/08):  The New York Times reports that Microvision is showing an “advanced prototype” of its standalone Pico Projector that the company hopes will be commercially available by the end of 2008.

Standalone projectors that must be connected to, for example, a phone will be used first by businesses.  Most consumers won’t want to carry around a projector, especially if it’s hundreds of dollars, as I assume it will be.

But once capabilities are integrated into phones — and the quality is “good enough” to see photos and videos — the early adopters will snap them up.

TV Guide wants to leverage its products for mobile TV...but how?

TV Guide is trying to figure out how to leverage its products for mobile television, including how to improve the user experience, says Bob Shallow, the vice president and general manager of Gemstar-TV Guide International's mobile entertainment group, in an “E-Commerce Times” article.

Shallow says in the article:

“We provide a robust metadata infrastructure.  We've amassed a library of program titles -- basically, every program that's aired on television dating back to the advent of TV, and film dating back to 1910.

“We have a tremendous database, and we've really learned how to optimize that for the delivery of this information into a guidance experience on various platforms.

“We also have developed a range of TV Guide services.  So, when you think of an on-screen guide, it is actually made up of a variety of parts, and those parts are your basic listings, your program information, plus enhanced features like the ability to set reminders, set recordings, parental controls, user profiles.

“We've created all of these guidance services, and we've really continued to innovate a lot around those services.  That's really important these days when you think about the emerging paradigm in terms of how people are consuming media.”

More information, please

I wish the reporter would have asked Shallow more in-depth questions so the information wouldn’t be so, uh, shallow.  So what is TV Guide going to do with all this information, from a mobile TV standpoint?

He says, “We're trying to figure out how to provide the best user experience so a consumer could go out to various platforms and pull media into a common user experience and -- very simply, with very few clicks -- get from one piece of content that might be housed over here to another piece of content over here.

“Or, once they set up a profile once, have it reflected on various platforms so it's easy to move within their various content environments and still have the best experience.”

What content?  What platforms?  What exactly is he talking about?

The interview, unfortunately, doesn’t say.

South Korea's SK Telecom readies launch of BluEye video projector for cellular phones

SK Telecom in South Korea is getting set to launch BluEye, “a matchbook-sized projector” that attaches to cellular phones to enable users to view videos, according to CNN.

Sorry — that’s all the information in the article!

Anyone know more about this?

Technology Review examines MEMS laser projects for projecting cellular phone images

Researchers at colleges and corporations as working on techniques --Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) -- utilizing lasers to enable cellular phones (among other devices) to project mobile television and other applications, according to an article in Technology Review.

The article focuses on researchers at Cornell University who working on MEMS.

The article, "High-Definition TV from your Cell Phone," says:

"A projector based on the device would be about the size of dime and could cast a meter-wide image on a surface only half a meter away.

"The key is a small mirror, about half a millimeter across, suspended by carbon fibers -- rolled-up sheets of crystalline carbon commonly used to reinforce materials.  The fibers amplify the vibrations of a piezoelectric motor, moving the mirror.

"This movement deflects a laser at different angles, causing it to sweep back and forth across a surface. 

"While the current device only moves the laser side to side, the researches say it can be easily mounted on a stage that tilts up and down to allow the device to sequentially draw each line of an image, using complex electronics that turn the laser on and off as it is directed across the screen to create the light and dark pixels.

"A full-color display would mix light from red, green, and blue lasers.

Texas Instruments already offers somewhat similar technology for commercial products.   In addition, Microvision (as I linked to in a recent article) is developing a color MEMS-type system and has been promoting it for mobile devices, although it's not ready for commercial deployment.

It certainly would be interesting to see how projecting images could stimulate the mobile TV business.   However, don't hold your breath waiting for MEMS in the near future. 

Cornell researchers are looking several years from now for any possible commercial mobile TV products.   The technology's cost is one of the stumbling blocks.   

[More to come.]

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