Varjo’s ‘Bionic Display’ Can Deliver Close to Retina Resolution

Virtual reality technology over the past two years has made considerable progress, especially when it comes to enhancing the user-experience while viewing immersive-rich content. However, VR manufacturers still remain in the constant pursuit of upping-the-ante when it comes to the display technology. A lot of focus and research has been done in this area with some interesting rendering techniques like ‘foveated rendering’, emerging recently.

Although many VR headsets boast of high display specifications on paper, it is found that for a wide field-of-view, the pixels are often stretched out. As a result, the effective angular resolution reduces to a considerable extent.

Finland-based VR startup, Varjo, aims to hit the sweet spot by achieving both – a wide field of view and retina resolution. It does this by the combination of microdisplays and macrodisplays thereby putting a high-density resolution in the center of the view that helps to achieve a wide FOV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWugzxp_t0Y

Bionic Display from Varjo

Varjo is currently working on a VR Headset which will host Bionic Display technology that provides a shortcut to the retina resolution and delivers higher viewing details by combining the two displays as said above. The headset will make use of what the company calls ‘focus display’ and ‘context display’.

The ‘context display’ is basically a big macrodisplay having a 1,080 × 1,200 resolution that is spread across 100-degree FOV. The ‘focus’ display covers a much smaller area. Varjo’s aim is to put the ‘focus display’ i.e. the microdisplay with a 1,920 × 1,080 resolution at the center of the headset’s field of view. In spite of the focus display’s limited resolution, its pixels are packed tightly into a 35-degree FOV which results in a very high pixel density.

Varjo claims that this helps to attain high image quality while noticeably reducing the screen door effect. The Bionic Display technology looks somewhat similar to the foveated rendering technique, where high resolution is attained only in the area of retina focus and the surrounding area has a considerable drop in resolution.

Varjo says that to attain the composition of two displays, it will be using an optical combiner which is nothing but a two-way mirror. Further using a combination of the software and hardware refinements, the company aims to smooth out the transition between the two displays.

One thing I am sure is that with this display technology at the heart VR, I am certainly going to have a gala time exploring my high-definition VR Porn content library.

Varjo’s VR Headset to Get an AR Pass-Through Capability

The headset manufacturer has also announced that its upcoming VR headset will come with AR pass-through capabilities that will be powered by Socionext image signal processors. Varjo is planning for an AR experience that is similar to the one on the ZED-mini which has a stereo depth-mapping camera that sits at the front of the headset.

When attached, these camera sensors then allow for comfortable pass-through stereo video within the VR headset with real-time depth and environment mapping. As a result, your VR Headset gets transformed into a developer kit which can deliver output given by high-end augmented reality headsets.

Varjo says that it has decided to choose Socionext’s Milbeaut enhanced image signal processor technology because of the complex level of camera processing that is required for both – AR and video pass-through.

Varjo’s CEO and Founder, Urho Konttori, in his comments said: “In Socionext, we have found a strong and reliable technology partner for state-of-the-art imaging solutions. With the Socionext Milbeaut technology, Varjo has built a unique way of combining the real and digital worlds in an unprecedented level of realism, quality and latency.”