HERE are some examples of research and development efforts that are starting to result in products being launched on a technology-mad and display-oriented market.Texas Instruments has recently been demonstrating a prototype of a pico-projector small enough to fit on your finger tips. The projector uses the company's DLP chip, an optical semiconductor.

The DLP chip is a sophisticated kind of light switch, containing a rectangular array of up to two million hinge-mounted microscopic mirrors. Each of the micromirrors measures less than one-fifth the width of a human hair.

Texas Instruments coordinates the DLP chip with a digital video or graphic signal, a light source, and a projection lens, getting the mirrors to reflect a digital image onto a screen or other surface. While the company has been licensing companies to use the chip for televisions, home theatre systems and business projectors, it has also been attempting to drill down into the handheld device market.

Earlier this year the company demonstrated how a cell phone could be used to capture and store content, including high-quality digital movies and console-quality video games. Users could then watch the content with others via a connection to mobile, palm-sized DLP pocket projectors.

Just imagine the kind of additional fear the movie industry is feeling after statements like that! "The ability to share content between the handset and DLP display should drive increased content sharing as consumers, in particular video gamers and movie fans," the company believes.

Using the .55 DLP chip, the micro-projectors weigh less than one pound. Mitsubishi, Samsung, Boxlight, Toshiba and ViewSonic have are available on the market now. Meanwhile Sony's work on television screens made with organic light-emitting diodes has led to the development of paper-thin displays. The company has now leveraged the technology by unveiling what it calls the world's first flexible version. The new screen uses plastic instead of glass. The 2.5-inch prototype weighs about 1.5 grams. Flexible displays can be used for advertising purposes and also for a number of everyday products, such as sunglasses.

In another development researchers in Sweden are working on digital paper that talks to you. They have already developed prototypes of large boards and store displays. These emit sounds when activated by a consumer's touch for example, using digital information embedded in the paper. A person can touch various parts of the display to get different types of information to stream out of printed speakers, according to research teams at the Mid Sweden University.

They have learnt how to combine paper with printed graphic codes and electronically conductive ink that is engineered to be sensitive to pressure. Then digital information is embedded in the paper, and when it is touched, the information comes out via printed speakers.

One of their prototypes is for a "music display board". On this slightly bowed board, a number of music albums are printed directly on paper. Just as with a regular sound system, you can sample music by touching the front of the album. The sound is then streamed right out of the paper.

After use, the displays can be tossed into the recycle bin. You can see a video of how the music board works at http://mkv.itm.miun.se/projekt/paperfour/.

Paper sensors are also very much in the news.

Researchers in Finland are working on new methods to mass-produce bioactive paper sensors. Bioactive paper uses the selective reactions of biomolecules, such as enzymes or antibodies. Used as packaging it can be used to indicate or sense contaminants or remaining shelf life in foods and other products, such as drugs and cosmetics.

One area of the project will work on methods to produce recyclable and cost effective techniques to produce the bioactive paper. Such paper could then be attached to packaging, either inside or outside, to indicate contamination problems.

The scientists believe that commercial production will begin in five years or even earlier on some of the first applications and that bioactive paper for foods will be on the shelves within 10 to 20 years.****

SIGN of the times: The other day a colleague who sits across the desk from me mentioned that while he was away for a family gathering in Dublin, his mom really got into playing virtual tennis on his brother's Nintendo Wii.The next morning she woke up with a sore arm and realised it had been a result of bashing an imaginary ball at the television set. Now a Spain-based doctor, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, has described the same soreness he felt after playing the same game as "Wiiitis".

Dr. Julio Bonis prescribes a dose of ibuprofen for one week, and complete abstinence from playing Wii video games.