Microprojectors in your phone

Microvision, a Redmond, Washington firm, plans to put a laser in your phone that can beam a 60-inch screen on a wall.

The hard part is getting the right green laser to make it happen. Red lasers are in every CD player; blue lasers are used in Blu-Ray and HD DVD players but for years, no one has made comparable green lasers.

Corning and Novalux are now developing miniature greens — freeing Microvision and its competitors, Texas Instruments and Britain-based Light Blue Optics, to move ahead.

Microvision uses one continuously swiveling mirror to transmit a 30 megapixel/sec image. It requires less power and can be achieved with a projector small enough to fit into the back of an iPod.

In July, the company signed an agreement with Motorola to incorporate its projector into a working mobile device.

By Christmas 2008, Microvision hopes to sell a stand-alone, iPod-size microprojector as an accessory that can be plugged into a video iPod or cell phone. And by Christmas 2009, microprojectors could be built into the devices themselves.

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