Today I have chosen to write about a micro projector application that came to my attention this week and that I find so irresistibly cleaver that I wanted to tell readers all about it.

Art Berman
Insight Media Consultant

The players in this story are Explay Ltd. (Herzliya, Israel; www.explay.co.il) and Luminetx Corp. (Memphis, TN; www.luminetx.com). This week’s news was that they have signed a collaboration agreement for Explay to develop and commercialize an ultra small mobile projector that will be a key component in the future development of the Luminetx’s VeinViewer product. Let’s start by taking a quick look at the application.

Luminetx’s VeinViewer is a device based on near infrared technology that can locate subcutaneous vasculature and project real time images directly onto the surface of the skin. It provides clinicians with a safe, non-invasive adjunct technology for clinical treatments and procedures including, but not limited to, IV insertion, routine venipuncture (blood sampling) and PICC line insertion.

What an incredible apparatus. I know that it may be jumping ahead by leaps and bounds but, just let your mind envision further possibilities. Let the user be a surgeon looking at the torso of a patient. On the input side, let the image source derive from a CAT, MRI, PET or ultrasound scan. On the micro-projector side, let the image be full color video and, possibly, even in 3D. The ability to visualize, plan and execute medical procedures should be vastly enhanced. It would be like a Star Trek technology becoming a reality.

In an unrelated application, since every person’s subcutaneous vein pattern is unique, a variation on the apparatus can be used to offer a fast, user friendly, hygienic and basically fraud proof method for verifying identity.

A large part of what makes the apparatus possible is the micro-projector technology. Explay’s ultra small mobile projection technology produces an eye safe, always focused, speckle free image.

Technologies utilized in the micro-projector include a hybrid laser diode light source, a single LCD microdisplay operating in color-sequential format and incorporating a micro lens array, plus high efficiency diffractive and refractive beam shaping elements.

Explay CEO Daniel Oleiski has stated that the company purposely developed its mobile projection technology to be versatile. Certainly the agreement with Luminetx is a tangible example of how Explay’s technology may be customized to partner specifications to produce novel yet wonderfully practical solutions.

Ultimately, the reason that I find this bit of news so interesting is that it is an example of a truly novel application of projection technology. The pace of innovation in projection displays will surely track the range of their applications and associated business potentials. The cost of systems depends on the volume in which they are produced. It follows that both the business and technology aspects of micro projectors will benefit if successful new applications are found for the technology.

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