...many other smartphone OEMS....

I scraped this article to be sure I didn't lose it.

Take everything with a grain of salt.... There's some interesting stuff in here!



EE Times -- Check the source.
LAKE WALES, Fla. — The skyrocketing popularity of augmented reality (Potkemon Go) and virtual reality (Google VR) may be the boost microelecromechanical systems (MEMS) projectors into the mass market, according to Microvision (Redmond, Wash.) at the MEMS Executive Congress (Scottsdale, Ariz). Microvision aims to break into the mass original equipment manufacturing (OEM) market in cooperation with STMicroelectronics (Geneva). Microvision's always-in-focus laser projector is so tiny and cheap that any smartphone can afford to add it (to project Pokemen for everyone to see) and for inexpensive VR glasses that anyone can afford.

Sony, ahead of the curve for once, has already been licensing Microvision's laser-based projector for two years as have many other smartphone OEMs who are too competitive to allow their names to be mentioned. Microvision has also been making a name for itself in the micro-lidar (3-D imaging system using invisible infrared beams) market. The advantage of its 5-millimeter sized projector allows not just smartphones and head-mounted displays (HMDs), but also even the tiniest un-manned vehicle to navigate using it.

"We have been public since 1996 on NASDAC as MVIS, but we expect our $1.35 stock price to rise once our deal with STMicroelectronics lands us major OEMs worldwide," Director of Technical Marketing and Applications Development Jari Honkanen told EE Times.

Jari claimed that their agreement with STMicroelectronics was also landing them major deals in other areas besides consumer electronics. For instance, heads-up displays can be projected onto windshields using their laser projector, images can be directly written onto the retina for AR projected from the hinge of your normal glasses, warehouse robots can more accurately navigate, industrial robotics can more accurately see in 3-D at variable resolutions traded off for frame rate.

The biggest advantage of Microvision's 0.65 cubic centimeter projector is that it requires no lenses, but is in focus and appears normal on any surface, even those that are rough or radically curved.

For range-finding 3-D lidar, the smallness and cheapness of the unit allows eight to be deploy economically around a vehicle to more accurate navigation and collision avoidance systems that are superior to radar-based Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) in use today, according to Honkanen.

— R. Colin Johnson, Advanced Technology Editor, EE Times