TriLite Technologies, an image display company developing technologies for glasses-free 3D screens for outdoor digital signage, has developed the TriLite Trixel, a 3-D effects display technology that does not require special glasses. The new display uses laser beams to send out different pictures into different directions. Each pixel contains a red, a green and a blue (RGB) laser diode and a moving mirror, which directs the laser light. These so-called Trixels open up the possibility to steer different image information to the viewer´s left and right eye, thereby enabling 3D without glasses for thousands of viewers.

"Imagine, for example, the screens on New York´s Times Square in 3D, or any setting that currently uses LED screens with full daylight viewability", said Ferdinand Saint Julien, CEO of TriLite.

A prototype has successfully been built, the technology is expected to become widely available in 2016.

TriLite also developed a new approach to fully miniaturize pico projectors for use in devices such as smart phones, smart watches and smart glasses. "We have not yet seen embedded pico projectors in these devices mainly due to the large size of current RGB laser modules", said Dr. Franz Fidler, CTO of TriLite. "While others are using complex and therefore large micro-optics, we are encasing a red, green and blue laser into one single hermetic package containing one single micro-lens."

This approach reduces the size of the RGB laser module to just 9.1 x 5.5 x 5.3 mm and the weight to just 1.5 grams, making the light source extremely suitable for embedding in portable devices. Dr. Franz Fidler further highlighted that "with the further reduction of size, TriLite’s RGB laser module opens up the possibility of virtual reality smart glasses projecting image information directly into the wearer’s eyes, and smartphones as well smart watches to feature embedded pico projectors".