Current displays for VR headsets allow us to peer into virtual worlds with ease, but there’s plenty of room for improvement. According to a recently discovered patent, LG is taking aim at one of those areas; the dreaded screen-door effect.
The patent, which was published last week, details a display that is “capable of alleviating a screen-door effect,” thus improving image quality inside VR.
Screen-door effect relates to being able to see the gaps between pixels in a VR headset’s display, which is magnified by the pair of lenses you peer through. Higher-resolution displays with increased pixel density can improve upon this issue; a 4K image will be much clearer than, say what’s on offer with the 1080p display inside PlayStation VR, though even then there’s still a long way to go before images reach a retinal resolution.
It doesn’t sound like LG’s new display targets resolution, though. Instead, the patent describes a “light diffusion member” that is placed between the display panel and the lenses. In the patent’s words, this “diffuses light emitted from a light-transmitting area of a display panel to a light-blocking area of the display panel” and “improves the image quality of the display.”
Whatever LG is working on, it’s possible that this design will be implemented into its upcoming SteamVR headset, which recently resurfaced for the first time in six months. We don’t know when the headset is set for release right now, but we’ll be very interested to take another look at it if it really is able to cut down on screen-door effect.
