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inViso's Personal Information Display

May 21, 1999
Web posted at: 10:15 a.m. EDT (1415 GMT)

by Stan Miastkowski

(IDG) -- Think your monitor takes up too much space? This week Inviso announced a full-color display with 800-by-600-pixel resolution that measures just an inch across and an inch thick, and weighs in at under an ounce.

And you don't need to strain your eyes to see it, Inviso claims.

The single-chip Optiscape II integrates a proprietary magnifying system that you hold up to your eye like the lens of a camera. According to the company, when you look from 2.5 inches away, you see the visual equivalent of a 19-inch monitor.

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Inviso is targeting the Optiscape II at the next generation of cellular phones, as well as other mobile and wireless communication products.

The company also plans to ship what it's calling the Personal Information Display, a handheld device similar to a Palm Pilot that uses the Optiscape II display and has a virtual keyboard and voice recognition capabilities. It's expected to sell for about $300.

But don't look for the Optiscape products now -- they won't ship until early next year.

High colors, low power

The Optiscape II's display uses "reflective CMOS" technology. According to Inviso, it delivers an image that has more vivid colors and crisper definition than the thin-film transistor displays used on laptops. It also uses considerably less power than other types of flat-panel displays and can go into a standby mode that uses minimal power.

Unlike conventional monitors and laptop displays that create color images by concurrently blending the three primary colors (red, green, and blue), the Optiscape II flashes the colors in sequence, with the eye and brain blending them into a complete image. The device handles frame rates of up to 93 Hz, for flickerless, full-motion video, according to Inviso.