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Laser System Paints Information on the Road Ahead

Cheaper green semiconductor lasers could bring a novel display technology to market.

Head-up displays
, which project visual data onto the windshield and the driver's view of the road, are debuting in a growing number of car models. But more vibrant, compact, and efficient displays being developed by Microvision
, a company based in Redmond, Washington, could help the technology become much more common. Japan's Pioneer Corporation
plans to release its first head-up display product based on Microvision's novel display technology this year. Major carmakers in Detroit are also planning to integrate the technology into their vehicles by 2016, says Lance Evans, a director of business development at the company. Microvision's image projector
relies on semiconductor lasers and a microscopic mirror. The company's head-up display is already in some concept cars but has so far been too costly for commercial models, says Evans. Now, falling prices of green lasers—a significant cost component of the display—should make the technology competitive with conventional displays, he says. Most existing head-up displays generate images using LCDs. Light-emitting diodes produce light and liquid crystal arrays act as shutters, controlling whether or not light reaches each pixel. This approach drains power, and the images often aren't bright enough to be visible in daylight. Newer displays use either liquid crystal devices or hundreds of tiny mirrors to reflect light onto each pixel. While more energy efficient, these displays are still not very bright. Microvision's system uses a set of three lasers—red, green and blue—and a single, millimeter-wide silicon mirror that tilts on two axes. The lasers put out light at different intensities, and the three colors are mixed to produce the final pixel color. As the lasers shine light on the mirror, it rapidly scans horizontally and vertically, painting the image onto the windshield one pixel at a time. This happens so fast that the image looks static. Evans says that the lasers' pure, saturated colors result in more vivid images with a higher contrast ratio, so they are visible in daylight. Illuminating one pixel at a time also saves energy. And the use of a single mirror rather than an array makes the device smaller, simpler, and cheaper. The final cost of Microvision's product will hinge on the price tag of advanced green lasers. Materials for true green lasers have traditionally been difficult to engineer, so most green lasers contain semiconductors that emit infrared light, which is converted to green using complicated optics. In the past few years, though, half a dozen key players, such as Nichia
,Osram Opto Semiconductors
, and Soraa
, have developed cheaper pure-green lasers. They're slowly scaling up production, which should lower costs. Evans expects that costs should fall to a tenth of current levels by the end of this year. "Green lasers alone are $200 each now," he says. "Car companies are looking at the whole display to be that much." Microvision's laser-scanning display technology beats its competitors in terms of image quality, says Krishna Jayaraman, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan
. While other companies are also developing laser-based head-up displays, Microvision was the first to propose the approach and has a technology lead. Chris Chinnock, president of the display market research firm Insight Media
, points out that mobile connectivity is on the rise, and drivers need more and more information to be displayed in the least distracting way possible. That means the head-up display market for cars could be on the cusp of significant growth.
GE's New EV Charging Stations Are Not Ugly

Stylish charging stations are one small step toward getting consumers to accept EVs.

GE's Wattstation electric-vehicle charging station went on sale this week. The most notable thing about it is its appearance. Unlike many other charging stations on the market now, this one isn't ugly. It looks like the sort of thing you might want to plug a $40,000 electric car into.
How to Make a Broken Heart Mend Itself

A few small molecules that control gene expression can repair the scar tissue in a mouse?s damaged heart. The technique could translate into human therapy for heart attack patients and others.
The Indoor Positioning System Era

You are here. Almost.

GPS rules your life. At least, it rules mine. Without the GPS on my iPhone, I don?t know what I?d do. I have dim prehistoric memories of something called a ?map,? and a hazy image of a gas station attendant pointing off into the distance.
Mathematics of Eternity Prove The Universe Must Have Had A Beginning -- Part II

Heavyweight cosmologists are battling it out over whether the universe had a beginning. And despite appearances, they may actually agree
New App Watches Your Every Move

The creators of Placeme think "persistent tracking" will have all sorts of positive uses—from keeping tabs on your exercise habits to keeping watch over loved ones.

Once in a while, you might feel like you're being watched. Lately, I know I am, thanks to a smart-phone app that stealthily tracks my every move, no check-ins required, with greater accuracy than common geolocation tools.
The Intersection of Information and Energy Technologies

Why I think computational power will solve the world's energy problems in this century.

Two talks at the TED conference this year formed, back to back, a sort of debate about the future of our planet. First, Paul Gilding gave a talk entitled "The Earth Is Full,"
about how we are using up all Earth's resources, with possibly devastating consequences. Next, X Prize creator Peter Diamandis gave a presentation entitled "Abundance
," about how we will invent innovative ways to solve the challenges that loom before us.

How Do You Know An Autonomous Vehicle Has Seen You?

MIT's Media Lab demonstrates a system that lets driverless vehicles communicate with pedestrians.

The Media Lab seems to have solved a problem that we don't yet have.

Researchers are using Google Adwords to test the persuasive power of different messages.

The Web has fundamentally changed the business of advertising in just a few years. So it stands to reason that the process of creating ads is bound to change too.

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