Grant: Engage Plus Grants Program

This project is on improving the performance of the micromirror based laser projection indicator technology, which was developed in the original NSERC Engage program. It is a continuation of the original NSERC Engage program. Kangaroo Design Inc. has an availability indicator product, ""MyFocus"", for increasing productivity in collaborative work environments. ""MyFocus"" indicator faces the wiring problem, e.g., the installation of each indicator requires a few meters wire to connect the indicator to the toggle and power source. The wiring problem has been a big barrier for broad market acceptance of the MyFocus product. In the original NSERC Engage grant, our team developed a micromirror based laser projection availability indicator technology, with which a dynamic laser pattern is generated and projected to a remote translucent film (> 1 m away) to indicate the availability without any wire connection. Thus it well solved the wiring problem plaguing the product of MyFocus. Kangaroo Design Inc. is very satisfied with the NSERC Engage program. While the new availability indicator technology successfully developed in the original NSERC Engage will replace the company's old LED based indicator, the application of this new technology to occasions where the computers are very close (as close as 0.5 m) to the cubicle wall or door window would be useful in further expanding MyFocus' market. Since the indicator technology was designed for projection distances > 1 m, the projected laser pattern (with a size of 3 cm or bigger for optimal visibility) would reduce to be less than 3 cm in size in short distance applications (e.g., laser pattern size becomes 1.5 cm for a projection distance of 0.5 m). The objective of this NSERC Engage Plus program is to improve the performance of the micromirror based laser projection indicator technology to widen its projection distance range from > 1 m to > 0.5 m, such that this technology will be suitable for applications of short distance between computers and cubicle walls or door windows.