Kopin shows off shrinking screens

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By Martyn Williams

CHIBA, Japan (IDG) -- As gadget manufacturers try to cram larger displays into cellular handsets and personal digital assistants, one company is turning heads by designing displays that are so small users need a magnifying lens to see the image.

Kopin, a Massachusetts-based company, is betting that its CyberDisplay is just what portable digital device manufacturers are looking for -- a VGA (640 by 480 pixel) resolution display that takes up a very small amount of space and carries a small price tag.

The company came to the CEATEC Japan 2001 exhibition here this week to show prototypes of products using the display.

The CyberDisplay has a diagonal width of just 9 millimeters -- or 6 millimeters in the case of a lower-resolution QVGA (320 by 240 pixel) version -- and even with the plastic case attached is smaller than a small coin, so it can fit easily into small spaces. All that is needed is a magnifying lens to allow users to see the entire screen.

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The first portable computing product that's expected to come to market using the display is a wireless handheld device called the Icom developed by Interactive Imaging Systems.

Described as a personal Internet browser, the handheld device is held up to the eye and a lens, placed in front of one of Kopin's screens, gives users a VGA-resolution screen. The device is based on Microsoft's Windows CE operating system and an Intel StrongARM processor and will be mass manufactured by Omron in Japan.

An alliance has also been formed with Sanyo Electric. The consumer electronics maker drew large crowds to its stand with prototype head-mounted displays and telephones that made use of the CyberDisplay.

The former was worn like a pair of glasses and had displays mounted at either side of the face with mirrors just in front of the eyes that reflected the display image. The latter had a display mounted in the base and a retractable lens and reflector that could be pulled out of the base of a phone when the user wanted to view the Web. The telephone was held in a similar manner to a normal handset except raised higher so the end of the handset was at eye level rather than mouth level.

The reception the technology has been getting in Japan is in sharp contrast to that of a few years ago, says John Fan, chairman and chief executive of Kopin. "When I first started coming here two or three years ago, everybody thought I was a nut to be making displays in Massachusetts. Displays are getting bigger and bigger. We are going the opposite way and getting smaller and smaller."

Now, with portable computing and wireless Internet access from cell phones becoming more and more common and companies beginning to talk about wearable computers, the need for high-resolution, small and light displays is earning him a different reception.