Texas Instruments (TI) is a global analog and digital semiconductor IC design and manufacturing company. TI develops analog, digital signal processing, RF and DLP® semiconductor technologies that help customers deliver consumer and industrial electronics products with greater performance, increased power efficiency, higher precision, more mobility and better quality.
You are probably telling yourself: “I thought this was an education blog.” Well it is. Texas Instruments invited the Texas ASCD Board of Directors to do a site tour of its latest display technology to enhance the learning environment in the classroom. Basically, TI wanted to show us the DLP 3-D ready projectors, along with many of their other inventions. The main focus of the tour was the use of 3-D ready projectors, and staying up with technology that is soon to be released. (If there is such a thing as staying up with technology.)
For many of us, technology and those developing the equipment for technology are always one step ahead of us. Once we decide what we need, we have to get bids, approval and finally apply for a purchase order. Once this process is completed, the technology guru’s have already developed the next new item we need. Well TI, is trying to help us. 3-D ready products are just now starting to come out and will be the state-of-the-art for now.
You can get a LCD projector for approximately the same price as a 3-D ready projector. The only difference is that the LCD projector will soon be outdated. TI uses tiny digital mirrors, microscopes, and light to create these images. The new 3-D ready projectors can be used for regular projection (just like the Infocus projectors) and when/if you get the software for 3-D the projectors will be set and ready to go. One only has to see the 3-D projected software to know that students can receive so much more in their learning experience. This same technology is starting to be used in televisions. Soon all of our home TV’s will have the ability to do 3-D images.
For more information on this type of projector, please visit: http://www.dlp.com/projectors/find_dlp_3d_projector.aspx
Also, Texas Instruments is doing a pilot program with these projectors with a few different schools around the country. To view a blog from one of these programs visit: http://bvsd.org/iteach/BlogCentral/Lists/Categories/Category.aspx?Name=Future%20Talk
Len Scrogan with Boulder ISD gives a lot of definitions and explanations on the different aspects of the 3-D projectors. He also writes about the future of these projectors along with the content. If you are interested at all in these new projectors, make sure you visit this blog.
Please feel free to answer the following questions:
1. Does your school/district have 3-D ready projectors?
2. Is there any other technology updates that you know of that are about to hit the market?
3. What kinds of new technologies are you using in the schools?
