Company Soon to Unveil the Largest Hi-Res Projector

Salt Lake City, Utah-based optics company Evans & Sutherland (E&S) has announced that it will soon unveil the world's highest-resolution projector, which is advertised to have around 33 megapixels of crystal-clear image. For comparison, PhysOrg informs, the new device will have the same resolution as that of 16 of the world's most sophisticated ones, stacked on top of each other. The new instrument is basically one of the best illusionists the world has ever seen, as it doesn't generate a 2D image on a screen. Rather, it sweeps a beam of colorful lasers on its support, but faster than the eye can see. Thus, people perceive the illusion as a regular image.

In most existing high-resolution projectors, the images are generated by tiny microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which are basically nothing more than 2D arrangements of light emitters. Each of the emitters gives out light of a specific color, but researchers at E&S understood that the system could only achieve so much. And, so, they broke away from this tradition, because installing about 33 million MEMS in a normal-sized projector proved to be nearly impossible.

In turn, they replaced the 2D array of light emitters with a single column of 4,000 pixels, entirely powered by a beam of lasers. What the new type of construction does is create a vertical stripe of color, which is changing at speeds so great that the human eye cannot see. This beam sweeps across a theater screen and generates the illusion of a 2D image. In order to be able to complete this device, the experts had to devise powerful laser fibers, capable of changing colors at the speed required to generate the illusion of fast-moving images in an action film.

The new device is only able to display images in a 2:1 format, which means that the length of the screen is twice its height. It's doubtful that the new projector will be used in movie theaters. Rather, E&S would advertise the gadget to institutions such as planetariums, training companies, and simulators. At this point, for these applications, supply companies usually deliver bundled projectors, each illuminating a certain portion of the screen. With the new, high-res instrument, that issue will be overcome, PhysOrg reports.