Photo: Green light for portable projectors

An essential element of portable video projectors is the laser diode, which projects the video image at sufficient brightness onto a screen or other flat surface. Glass and ceramics specialist Corning is developing a green laser diode that will take up only about 1 cubic centimeter of space and work in projectors that will put out 10 to 20 lumens of brightness--equivalent to what an LCD monitor gives off--to project an image that measures 9 to 12 inches diagonally.