TI unveils DLP LightCrafter

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Texas Instruments (TI) DLP Products announced DLP LightCrafter, the latest, most advanced platform for modern developers seeking to harness spatial light steering ability for a multitude of applications and products within industrial, medical, security and scientific instrument markets.

This evaluation module is the next advancement of tools created to empower developers with components to utilize reliable, award-winning DLP technology in new and unique ways. DLP LightCrafter combines proven components with enhanced processing speed and power, all housed in a compact form. Developers can easily create, store, and display high-speed pattern sequences through DLP LightCrafter's USB-based application programming interface (API) and easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI).

"DLP LightCrafter leverages our 15 years of experience with the DLP imaging device, and is the latest addition to our development kit platform. It gives customers the ability to harness the power of light and turn their innovative ideas and prototypes into functioning products and solutions," said Mariquita Gordon, business manager, DLP Embedded.

"We listened to the feedback from our customers and developed the DLP LightCrafter to enhance the user experience, reduce development time, foster greater creativity and help our customers get to market faster."

At the core of DLP LightCrafter is the reference design for Texas Instruments' 0.3-inch WVGA resolution DLP chipset, traditionally found in DLP Pico projectors, which enables reliable, high speed spatial light modulation. The chipset has two main components: The DLP3000, a MEMS device comprised of 415,872 microscopic mirrors, and the DLPC300, a controller that provides a convenient user interface and high speed operation of the micromirror array.

Expanding upon the performance of consumer DLP Pico projectors, the 0.3 WVGA chipset can display up to 4000 binary patterns per second. DLP LightCrafter integrates the 0.3 WVGA chipset with an RGB LED light engine that is capable of producing more than 20 lumens of light output.

DLP LightCrafter also includes Texas Instruments' powerful TMS320DM365 embedded processor, 128MB of NAND flash memory for pattern storage, and a configurable I/O trigger for integrating cameras, sensors, and other peripheral devices. An embedded Linux OS allows for a user-friendly interface, enhanced functionality and a customizable platform to maximize DLP LightCrafter's performance to match a developer's specific needs.

"Over the past few years, our company has had great success in using DLP's development tools to build out our designs for contactless, 3D fingerprint scanners, among other biometrics products," said Mike Troy, CEO, FlashScan3D. "DLP technology allows us to capture greater detail in fingerprints with higher accuracy, thus cutting down on the possibilities of technician error and fraud, and with the new DLP LightCrafter development module, we can scan prints faster, store data internally versus on a laptop or separate storage device and, because of its size, create even smaller, portable products."