It's all done with LASERS

[unixronin]

Here's an interesting new player in the TV technology wars ... an Australian company, Arasor International, together with its US partner, Novalux, showed off what they call a laser TV yesterday, the date apparently chosen to boost Arasor's imminent IPO on the Australian stock exchange.  Reading between the lines of the article, it appears to be a front-projection system.  Arasor claims it will be "half the price, twice as good", and draw a quarter as much power as a plasma or LCD TV, as well as being half the weight and thickness of a plasma screen.

The really interesting claim in this article, from Novalux CEO Jean-Michel Pelaprat, is that while LCD or plasma TVs cover about 30%-35% of the visual gamut of the human eye, the Arasor "laser TV' technology will cover 90% of the human visual gamut, producing "a lifelike image on display".  (But only, I find myself thinking in response, if the cameras are similarly upgraded.  You can't reproduce color information that isn't present in the signal; all you can do is interpolate and fake it based on your knowledge of the camera's gamut.)  Pelaprat asserts that the plasma TV is dead, and predicts that laser TV will come to dominate the market for screens 40" diagonal and larger (Novalux's plans appear to include theater projectors), while the market for screens under 40" will be dominated by LCDs.

We're already entering the age of high-definition TV; if this technology's claims are borne out, it could be the beginning of what we might come to call "high-fidelity TV".

Comments

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

IF it is the technology that I am thinking of, the projection box is less than an inch cross section and about 4 cm long. I keep hoping to see that and a white shell used in laptops. No more electronics used in the top shell. Just a solid hunk of protective material for the keyboard. Near infinite resolution. Cool stuff!

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

"Near infinite resolution"? An interesting comment. I take it to mean the laser (or laser array, to get colors) scans the screen in an arbitrary-resolution raster?

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

If it is what I am thinking of, it has resolution better than the eye can discern. Plus, it can be run in vector mode.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Hmm, yeah, stands to reason it would support vector drawing too ...