A research team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in collaboration with research teams from France and South Korea, has developed a technology that can qualitatively improve the quality of images from virtual reality glasses.
According to the findings, published in the journal Nature, the technology relies on arranging the pixels of the LEDs in the displays of virtual reality glasses differently from current manufacturing processes, resulting in images with indistinguishable properties. reality.
LED display manufacturers find it difficult to produce displays with higher resolutions than currently available because current technology relies on reducing the size of LED pixels to produce higher resolution images. smaller than the current size. Although this is not a problem for TV screens, the screens for virtual reality glasses need to be developed more accurately than they are today, because the images displayed are very close to the user's eyes, which makes it difficult to add screens necessary to increase the accuracy of the virtual reality experience.
The current technology consists of placing three red, green, and blue LEDs on three electronic chips placed side by side with great precision so that each of the three LEDs represents a pixel capable of displaying the combination of the three colors to provide the desired color. Manufacturing a single display requires millions of such wafers, which are difficult to manufacture due to the small size of the LEDs, less than 100 microns in diameter.
The new technology is based on a different manufacturing process in which three tubes are arranged horizontally instead of vertically. According to the researchers, these vertically arranged tubes can still produce full spectrum colors up to 4 microns wide, which means more pixels can be packed into the same space.
While virtual reality glasses will be the biggest beneficiaries of this new technology, it cannot be ruled out that it will later reach television screens, creating screens of larger dimensions and higher resolution.
The innovation comes at a time of explosive growth in virtual and augmented reality applications, with major technology companies investing millions of dollars in software and hardware development in this field. While these technologies are currently still primarily focused on entertainment and education, technology companies are looking forward to a future where the Internet itself can become an immersive virtual reality where people can meet or shop and buy products by entering virtual stores. Simulate reality in more than hundreds of applications. other possibilities.