How Does a Beamer Actually Works

Beamers are an optical device that is used to display media onto a screen by sending out a beam of colors from a source of light in a specific pattern. Traditional beamers use some kind of lens to reflect light.

Beamers expand light rays from the multimedia source resulting in an enlarged display. There are two types of projectors LCD and DLP. LCD is the older technology. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. It uses a bulb that shines a strong light through a prism which dispersed it. The prism causes the light to split into its component colors. These colors are sent through an LCD screen which allows light only through specific pixel locations. After this, the light is sent out as a beam through a lens and onto the viewing screen.

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The other type of beamer, that is the DLP beamer uses a little more complicated technique. DLP stands for Digital Light Processing. It uses thousands of tiny mirrors that are mounted on a spinning wheel to reflect the light. These mirrors are activated by electronic impulses, depending on the color needed at the moment. Unlike the LCD beamer which sends out all the colors together as a beam, DLP sends out one color beam at one time. But it is done so quickly that the primary colors seem to blend into each other, thus creating the desired color onto the screen.

This is why the images appear lit up when in reality some part of it or another is constantly receiving light which gives the impression of flickering. Some DLP beamers give off the rainbow effect if white objects move on a deeper color background. This issue is resolved by using a higher number of mirrored chips and greater speed of rotation.

LCD is considered better for stationery hight-contrast images and DLP is deemed ideal for motion media. The newest type of beamers is handheld beamers. They use lasers or LEDs to beam an image onto a screen but these beamers are not as effective in producing a crisp and high-quality image. Some new kinds of beamers are also capable of sending images directly onto the retina instead of an external screen. This technology is known as virtual retinal display.

To conclude it can be added that the older slide beamers have become obsolete. They have been replaced by new digital beamers which are easy to use and more efficient.