PSP World

Is Mirasol the Future of Handheld Gaming?

Every PSP owner knows that the biggest enemy of handheld games is not man-made, but natural. Direct sunlight has been the biggest impediment to gaming since Jack Thompson was still allowed to practice law. While the new PSP 3000 was supposed to remedy the issue, thanks to anti-glare coating and a brighter screen, the first hopeful customers who took their PSP outside were quickly disappointed. Even in cloudy weather, the effect of sunlight on handheld games is like garlic to a vampire. Now, an innovative new screen technology is set to change all of that, and revolutionize the way we look at games.

Silicon Valley based company Qualcomm has developed a display for use in portable music players that is completely visible in full sunlight. In fact, the color display actually performs better in the direct sun, because it uses reflected rays to amplify colors.

Termed the “Mirasol” screen, this technology is hailed as the first reflective Interferometric Modulation (IMOD ) color display, and might soon be found in a variety of portable applications, including gaming systems. Mirasol quite literally means “Look… Sun!” in Spanish. Interferometric screens, sometimes also referred to as E-Paper, use the passage of light wavelengths through different layers of the screen to produce an image.

The first 0.9-inch IMOD color Mirasol display will be introduced by Freestyle Audio in its next-generation MP3 player product line (pictured). Other mobile devices, such as MP3 players and mobile phones, stand to benefit from Mirasol displays which require significantly less power and harness ambient light sources to automatically scale for optimal viewing in virtually any lighting condition.

This technology is great for those gnarly enough to take their electronics with them into the extreme outdoors, but what about the rest of us nerds who sometimes like to remain firmly planted on the sofa? Mirasol is not completely useless indoors, but it would be outperformed by current backlit displays, much in the way that the Gameboy Color sort of sucked before it was replaced by the backlit Gameboy Advance.

Of course, there is nothing stopping companies from innovating a backlit/Mirasol hybrid for gaming. While the technology would require a good deal of research, the advantages might be worth it – the device would consume considerably less battery power when used outdoors, and the pesky glare problem would be solved once and for all.

[Source: Mirasol Fact Sheet]