News

CamFPD Announces New Prototype of Its Revolutionary Thin Display Technology (29/11/2004)

Cambridge Flat Projection Display Ltd (CamFPD), the developer of revolutionary patented Wedge(r) technology for lower-cost, flat, display solutions, today announced the successful fabrication of its first 50 inch prototype display. After testing and evaluation in Cambridge, the display has been shipped to sponsors in Japan.

Wedge(r) technology comprises a set of inventions which allows an image to be projected from a normal digital projector into the edge of a thin plastic panel, and emerge from the front of the same panel. Normally, images have to be projected from the front, as they normally are in meeting rooms and in cinemas, or from the back of the screen, as with an increasing number of large-screen household "rear-projection" televisions. While producing good quality images and costing less than LCD or plasma TVs, such rear projection televisions are bulky. However, Wedge(r) technology will allow such televisions to be made as thin as LCD or plasma TVs, but at less than half the cost. It will also allow much larger screen sizes than LCD or plasma TVs, with the inventors predicting 100-inch diagonal displays within 2 years.

CamFPD has already produced high quality 14" demonstrators, but this 50" model is the biggest demonstrator yet made. Adrian Travis, the inventor of Wedge(r) technology and co-founder of the Company, said on Friday, "While it is over a year since we proved conclusively that Wedge(r) technology produces good images on a flat screen, this large screen demonstrator now convincingly shows that Wedge(r) technology is scalable to large displays and can be a real contender in the huge market for home cinema hardware."

The Company said that, since showing a 14" prototype at the Society of Information Display's annual exhibition held in Seattle in May 2004, it has been deluged with customer requests for both 14" and 50" demonstrator units, as well as specially-tailored units for specific applications. CamFPD co-founder Quintus Travis said "Two exciting aspects of this technology are the number of prospective customers showing strong interest in using the technology for the original home cinema target and the number of enquiries we are receiving on new ways for applying Wedge(r) optics. We now have strong relationships in automobile, avionic, defence, waste management, and security industries as well as with various well-known names in consumer electronics."

CamFPD expects licensees to begin mass production of the technology in late 2005 or early 2006, and is now seeking manufacturing partners for some of the key components of the system.

www.camfpd.com