Researchers from the University of Cambridge in England and Light Blue Optics Ltd. have found a way to leverage holographic technology to produce a small laser-driven video projector.

The method could lead to pocket-sized, battery-powered video projectors that produce images whose quality matches that of today's full-sized projectors, according to Adrian Cable, a researcher at the University of Cambridge in England and director of Light Blue Optics Ltd. This type of projector could also be built into a laptop computer, said Cable.

Key to the device's diminutive size is the lack of lenses and high-power light bulbs. Conventional digital video projectors form images by generating a small picture on a transparent microdisplay inside the projector, then shining a high-power light through the microdisplay to a large magnifying lens.

In the researchers' design, a two-dimensional hologram is shown on the microdisplay rather than an image, and the projected image is formed by shining a laser beam through the microdisplay, which scatters the light into a particular pattern. "No lenses are required -- the projected image is formed entirely by diffraction," said Cable.

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