DLP & MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) Blog

  • 3D Structured Light using DLP® Technology

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    3D Structured Light using DLP ® Technology During the first part of this year I have been giving demonstrations on using DLP technology for 3D Structured Light at Trade Shows, Summits and individual customer visits. The setup...
  • Photonics West 2011 – Be There, Aloha

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    For the third year in a row, DLP Products will be hosting a conference at Photonics West titled “Emerging Digital Micromirror Device Based Systems and Applications.” Don’t let the title of this blog send you too far west. It will be...
  • Discovery Series - Global vs Phased Operation

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    Global vs Phased DMD Operation Blog Series Part 1 About two years ago I purchased a Nikon Digital SLR camera. Previously I had several point and shoot digital cameras and before that I used a 35mm Olympus SLR camera, which I still own. I will...
  • DLP® LightCommander™ – Out-of-the-Box

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    DLP ® LightCommander™ – Out-of-the-Box About a month ago I got my very first Blackberry. Previously I had a fairly simple phone that could play mp3s and had a few utilities like a calculator function but by today’s standards...
  • What is the DLP® LightCommander™?

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    Have you ever needed a Philips screwdriver but could only find a flat blade? Sometimes if it is narrow enough you can make the flat blade do, but there is nothing like the “right tool” for the job. If you are developing a light processing...
  • More Exciting New DMD Applications Presented at SPIE Photonics West 2010

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    As the Wizard sits in the audience watching his daughter and a bunch of other kids in an all-weekend-long dance competition, what better time than now to ruminate on SPIE Photonics West 2010. The theme of the dance competition is “Always Something...
  • Exciting New DMD Applications Presented at SPIE Photonics West 2010

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    The Wizard recently returned from a very interesting conference in San Francisco. SPIE Photonics West 2010 held their annual symposium there this year after being in San Jose since Adam was a boy. There was a record 18,000 attendees, larger exhibitions...
  • The DLP Discovery Kit offers exceptional flexibility in light modulation

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    According to Wikipedia, my favorite source of information, “a spatial light modulator (SLM) is an object that imposes some form of spatially-varying modulation on a beam of light.” This brings to mind my recent trip to Mexico to visit the...
  • Get the Picture, the Whole Picture, and Nothing But the Picture

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    Perhaps one of the most underrated features of the DLP ® Pico™ Projector Development Kit optical engine is something called “offset”. For some of us relics, this word “offset” reminds us of a printing process like that...
  • TI Tech Day Fun!

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    Ever wonder how to condition an analog signal with an Amplifier and then provide it to an ADC into a DSP before sending it to a DLP ® chip? If you answered “YES”, then maybe a TI Tech Day is for you. Recently, I was able to give a...
  • 101 things to do with a Beagle Board

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    Well actually, this blog doesn’t list 101 things but it does give you a feeling for what types of applications the Beagle Board is ending up in. This development platform is open source so anyone from a hobbyist to a grad student to a senior engineer...
  • Good Things Come in Small Packages – Why Small Can Be Better

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    In previous blogs , I have discussed how long the DLP® Chip can operate but I am often asked about the environmental robustness of the DLP Chip, too. Here are a few sample questions: - The micromirrors are so small, are they fragile? - Will they break...
  • Ear to the Tracks

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    When I was a young boy looking for trouble with my friends during the lazy days of summer in the rural farm town I grew up in, one of our favorite acts of vandalism was to put coins on the local railroad tracks so the passing freight trains would flatten...
  • World’s Best Technology features Hyperspectral Imaging with DLP® Technology

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    Last month, March 24-25, the University of Texas at Arlington hosted the 7th annual World’s Best Technology Showcase. The WBTshowcase is the world’s premier event exposing undiscovered, revolutionary energy, life science, IT and physical science...
  • Move over Snoopy, here comes the Beagle Board !

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    Ok, so you’ve just unpacked your DLP® Pico Projector Development Kit and want to start projecting images. The projector is very small; wouldn’t it be nice if there was a small-form-factor-powerful-yet-low-cost processor you could pair...
  • WHO IS ED TONDUE, AND WHY DUE I CARE?

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    In my last blog, I alluded to the mysterious concept of etendue as the limiting factor for the DLP ® Pico™ Projector Development Kit optical engine brightness. I discussed why monochrome modes are not much brighter because of it. This time I...
  • Happy Birthday: 25.8 Quintillion and Still Going

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    OK, admit it. How many of you had to look up the word “quintillion” to see what it is? I know I did the first time I used it. A quintillion is 10^18 (USA and Modern British). Way back last year, I wrote a blog about how reliable the DLP chip...
  • 3D Metrology at 17,210 MPH

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    On Wednesday, August 8 th , 2007 at 6:36 pm EDT, the Space Shuttle Endeavour launched from the Florida coast into low Earth orbit to deliver the S5 truss and the third External Storage Platform (ESP-3) to the International Space Station (ISS). On approach...
  • WOW!!! What’s going on out there? – Part Deux

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    As promised, here is the final installment of my summary of the conference titled “Emerging DMD-Based Systems and Applications” held on Wednesday, January 28 at SPIE Photonics West (January 24 to 29, 2009 in San Jose, CA). As I said in my...
  • If One Is Good, Three MUST Be Better, Right?

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    This installment I will actually attempt to do something useful and answer a frequently asked question about the DLP ® Pico™ Projector Development Kit optical engine. The optical engine uses one each red, green, and blue LEDs (three total) arranged...
  • What does Mount Rushmore have to do with 3D Metrology??

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    In 1923, Doane Robinson, superintendent of the South Dakota State Historical Society, dreamed of an enormous Presidential memorial carved into the side of a mountain. This wasn’t just patriotism, South Dakota was in need of tourism dollars. With...
  • WOW!!! What’s going on out there?

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    I had the honor and privilege of chairing a conference titled “Emerging DMD-Based Systems and Applications” on Wednesday, January 28 at SPIE Photonics West (January 24 to 29, 2009 in San Jose, CA). I thought I knew what was going on with our...
  • Happy New Year (??)

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    Hello and happy new year to all - whether you are just starting your lunar new year, or just getting over the hangover from the calendar new year (but enough about me). As I am writing this installment, I am also watching and listening to the press coverage...
  • 3D Metrology and Structured Light

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    Hello again, hope you had a chance to take some time off and enjoy the holidays. We have been looking at some applications of 3D metrology; now let’s look at a method for getting 3D information from a 2D scene. One method of collecting...
  • Come Join the DLP Team at Photonics West January 24-29

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    Happy New Year to one and all!!! I am really looking forward to 2009 and all that it may bring, which hopefully includes a few more friends and a few less pounds… J The DLP® team is hosting a booth at Photonics West this year (January...