I was watching TV when a comercial for the LG G3 appeared. It has an Infra-Red VCSEL used as in the auto-focus. It can measure the distance between the phone and the subject in order precisely focus the camera. Mind blown. I can't believe I never uncovered this in research!
(I don't know if this was posted here before?)
The point being, the technology POET is working on, is the technology of now. And we're only going to find more places to cram these laser into. Especially when they can be integrated on your chip, it uses minimal power, and it's cheap.
Check it out:
http://www.phonearena.com/news/Beam-time-LG-G3-Laser-Auto-Focus-technology-explained_id56580
The laser used is made by STMicroelectronics:
http://www.st.com/web/en/resource/technical/document/datasheet/DM00112632.pdf
