Seiko Epson Corporation

The Background of the Development of HTPS LCD projectors

Epson's development of LCD panels can be traced back to their use in electronic watches, when they were mounted on the world's first digital quartz watch with a six-digit LCD. In 1977, Epson started to develop active-matrix LCD panels, and in 1982, introduced the "TV Watch"; the world's first television-watch, for sale to the world.

As applications for LCDs began changing from watches to televisions, it was realized that it would be essential to create technology for producing higher definition at lower costs, and so Epson took the first steps toward developing HTPS. In 1984, Epson commercialized the "ET-10", a TFT liquid crystal pocket color TV using this panel. This effectively woke the world up to the possibilities LCD panels provided for television, and represented a milestone in progress towards the current state of liquid crystal televisions.

However, as the display size was 2.1" (5.3cm diagonal) it was too small to really enjoy watching TV. Back then, VTR was becoming more and more popular in the audio-visual equipment market, and demand for big-screen images was very strong. From this, Epson came up with the idea of making big screen images by magnifying and projecting the image displayed on a small LCD panel, and thus began to develop 3 LCD projectors using HTPS.

In January 1989, after a 3-year development period, Epson introduced to the market the "VPJ-700"; the world's first liquid crystal video projector using 3 HTPS panels. It was both compact and low-priced, completely different from conventional 3-color CRT projectors. This product received critical acclaim for its optical and liquid crystal technologies, and as a result, other companies also began commercialization of LCD projectors soon after.

"ET-10", a TFT liquid crystal pocket color TV

Focusing on presentation use

We focused next on the growing needs of the PC-based presentation market in the US. Setting up projects in each of the R&D, finished product, and LCD panel departments, Epson carried out intensive market research. The results of this research revealed the following essential criteria; the ideal projector should "be able to project images that can be seen with the lights on", "be able to display VGA", "be hand-portable", and "be reasonably priced". As a result, 4 goals were set; "twice the brightness", "twice the definition", "half the size", and "half the cost". To realize the doubled brightness, new technologies such as integrators and special lamps developed in collaboration with a specialist company were employed, improving luminous efficacy. Using the same 1.3" (3.3cm diagonal) LCD panel size, Epson set the high goal of upgrading the definition from the standard 320x240 to 640x480 (VGA) dots. Finally, in December 1994, EPSON announced the "ELP3000"; a 3LCD data projector which attained all of these goals

It achieved 250lm; nearly triple the brightness of the first projector "VPJ-700", and could be used with the lights on in a room. That made it possible to see the presenter's face, take notes, and even make presentations without using a screen, increasing the opportunities to be used in meetings.
The ELP3000 was A4-file-sized and with a compact an lightweight body it weighed only 7.7kg, allowing users to not only move the projector from room to room for meetings, but to carry it with them on business trips. In addition, the ELP3000 featured a projection lens with a zooming function, and an automatic definition detection function to save setup time when being connected to a PC.

These functions would never have been achievable with the big 3-color CRT projectors that required convergence at the time of installation. The ELP3000 pioneered the entirely new market of data projectors. Up to then, OHPs (overhead projectors) had been used for presentations, but 3LCD projectors that could directly project the images shown on the PC's display took their place completely. Furthermore, data projectors became an essential tool for business along with PC applications such as Windows or PowerPoint that gained widespread use at that time, and which helped create a wave of office automation among companies.