CES 2010: Casio fleshes out imaging plans

The Casio Green Slim projector provides 3,000 lumens without needing a mercury lamp

LAS VEGAS: Digital imaging firm Casio has released details on its upcoming line of enterprise and consumer imaging appliances.

At the business end, the company revealed a new slim and environmentally friendly digital projector, which is able to achieve a brightness of up to 3,000 lumens without the use of a mercury lamp.

Frank Romeo, vice president of business projectors for Casio America, said that the projector uses a new method to avoid the weak green lighting which had caused low brightness levels in previous mercury-free projectors.

By using a phosphor wheel to convert blue light into green, the projector is able to produce a green light with a matching brightness to the red and blue light sources. The result is a projector which can achieve high levels of brightness and clarity without the need for hazardous components.

"Our hybrid source turns over the conventional wisdom that high-brightness projectors have to use mercury lamps," said Romeo.

The projectors are also lighter and more durable, weighing in at 2.26kg with a thickness of just 1.7in.

The new LED system does not require the warm-up or cool-down time of conventional projectors, creating a longer lifespan that Romeo estimates could last for eight hours every day of the year for roughly seven years.

Casio also introduced a new line of digital cameras and picture frames aimed at consumers. The cameras will expand on the company's Exilim high speed photography platform, which allow consumer cameras to capture high-speed images.

A new digital art frame will use built in filters to apply artistic effects to photographs. Built-in Adobe Flash Lite support will also allow the frames to download and display a number of different clock and calendar displays.