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Google To Reveal 'World's Highest Resolution OLED-On-Glass Display' For VR Headsets (roadtovr.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the coming-soon dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Last year at SID Display Week 2017, Google's VP of VR/AR teased a "secret project" that the company was working on -- a VR-optimized OLED panel capable of 20 megapixels per eye -- which was being undertaken with "one of the leading OLED manufacturers." This year, the schedule for SID Display Week 2018 indicates that Google plans to reveal its made-for-VR panel on May 22nd, which it calls the "world's highest resolution (18 megapixel, 1443 ppi) OLED-on-glass display." The company plans to detail the display in a presentation at the event, which will be co-presented with engineers from LG, suggesting the identity of the second partner on the project. Ideal for VR, the 4.3-inch panel is capable of 120Hz refresh rate and is expected to have a resolution of some 5,500 by 3,000, representing a massive leap over today's leading VR panels which offer 1,600 by 1,440 resolutions at 90Hz.

4 of 77 comments (clear)

  1. Google makes it ? NO THANKS. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    I've seen way too much evidence of Google's seemingly psychotic behavior with respect to committing to a project and then killing that project off like it was a cockroach.

    When a credible company brings such a product to market, I'll consider it. In the mean time, I'm quite certain I will live very well indeed without this stuff.

  2. Not for home use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since everything that could be used to drive these panels will be mining coins, nobody can use these at home.

  3. Still a long ways to go by Solandri · · Score: 4, Informative

    is expected to have a resolution of some 5,500 by 3,000,

    Current VR displays cover about a 200 degree field of view. 20/20 vision is defined as the ability to distinguish a line pair spaced 1 arc-minute apart, so 2 pixels per arc-minute. So this corresponds to (200 degrees) * (60 arc-minutes/degree) * (2 pixels/arc-minute) = 24,000 pixels. You need a display that's 24,000 pixels wide for it to display a 200 degree field of view and have the individual pixels not be discernible to the eye. So this display will be a little more than 1/5 of the way there.

    Put another way, the angular resolution of this new VR headset will be (5500 pixels) / (200 degrees) = 27.5 pixels per degree. That's about the angular resolution of a 50" 1080p HDTV viewed from 31" away. Or a 24" 1080p monitor viewed from 15" away. The pixels will still be painfully obvious.

  4. Re:The question is: by WaffleMonster · · Score: 4, Informative

    I can just barely see the pixels in the Sony Playstation VR headset, which is 1080p, especially when moving my head slowly or holding it at a slight angle.

    A 4K screen would probably be overkill for such a small problem (3840 x 2160 = 8.2 Mpixels).

    A 20 Mpixel screen would just be a waste of technology - and money, no doubt.

    The only metric that matters in VR displays is Pixels Per Degree of arc (PPD) with 60 being very roughly limit of what people can see.

    PSVR has a crummy 100 degree FOV yielding following PPD in each resolution category.

    PSVR = 14.45
    4k = 44
    20MP = 64

    If you were to increase FOV to 180 to better match vision.

    PSVR = 8
    4k = 24.5
    20MP = 35.55

    Not only is 20MP not a waste of technology it's not nearly enough. It's less than half resolution of an iPhone display held at a distance of 1 FT.