Samsung Electronics has filed a patent with WIPO for a VR headset with a flexible display and a curved surface. The field of view will be increased significantly by the new design, to create the same viewing angle as human.
The human viewing angle is about 200 degrees or more. While current VR headsets with a flat display have a FOV of maximum 110˚. For example, the Gear VR with controller has a viewing angle of 101˚. This is also one of the reasons why some people suffer from motion sickness (nausea or dizziness) when experiencing virtual reality.
The patented technology can be used for stand alone, tethered and mobile VR headsets. Samsung may use a cylindrical or spherical display type. In addition, one of the drawings included show a HMD with a foldable smartphone, which also enables a larger FOV.
Be interesting if this patent causes conflict with the oculus patent for curve displays for vr.
Personally i think its crazy to patent the application of something that already exists in the market for monitors & tv.
But often patents seem to be used to slow progression or to almost eliminate it. Ie while electric & hybrid cars are being released, its not new mfgrs like GM had competions &or simply bought out innovation & shelfed it.
Indeed paralax displays. I recall an lg 20" that even tracked eye position to display proper angle. Or the Amazon Fire 3d phone that used 4? Ir sensors/cams to track eyes.
I knew it wouldn’t be long before we got more gen2 HMD reveals. Thank god we’ll have some options if the 5K/8K don’t turn out quite as well as expected, because gen1.5 Vive Pro is not an option with its features and price point.
I now highly doubt this is going to be the way of the future, because of distortion problems due to iris movements. StarVR showed that dynamic distortion correction is the solution, so how would that work with curved panels? You’d still need to do some kind of distortion correction, OR physically move the panel somehow (something a la Oculus dome)
I can’t see any reason why a distortion algorithm couldn’t calculate distortion across a curved display. The problem with flat displays is the correction becomes near to impossible approaching the angles toward the edges of the natural vision (hence the distortion). Curved displays would make for a more even or consistent correction across the display. Should simplify lens design too, since you are dealing with more similar focal points across the field of view.
The fact that several of these patents have been granted shows that it isnt the basic idea of a curved display in a headset that is being patented but something far more specific about the design. It still leaves other companies free to design a curved diaplay headset just as long as they don’t specifically copy the design in the patent.
ah yeah sure, but I always figured the main reason for curved would be that you could just skip the HMD render distortion pass, so saving processing power. But I indeed think that the fact that curved panels can make for a smaller HMD is quite an advantage in itself already.
I will say I love how those screens curve on only horizontally but also vertically.
