The reality of virtual reality

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

At the start of the year, we forecast that 2019 would be the year of big trends, and we’re right on course. In January, we started with the internet of things, followed by autonomous vehicles in February, and now virtual reality in March. We’ve found that augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications are becoming a key battleground for smartphones and wearables such as smart glasses and, in particular, head-mounted displays (HMDs).

So what do VR headsets like Google Daydream, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear, and Sony Playstation VR have in common? They all rely on tiny electronics components that bring these products to life for a more immersive experience. Some of the biggest areas of innovation are new sensing devices, ranging from imagers and accelerometers to inertial measurement units (IMUs), along with 3D sensing.

There is no doubt that all players — from component manufacturers to OEMs — in the VR/AR supply chain are all focused on innovation and advancing technologies. Work is advancing in several technology areas — displays, sensing, and tracking — to help drive and create these immersive devices for a range of consumer, medical, military, and industrial applications.

Despite the billion-dollar market values from industry researchers and more mainstream devices like smartphones and tablets adding VR capabilities and HMDs being developed for consumer, industrial and medical applications, the VR/AR industry is very much in its infancy. Much more innovation needs to be done on the hardware (such as display and sensing technologies) and software (user interface) sides.

In some cases, the advances in technology and end-product designs will require partnerships. Our Outlook story is a good example. Taiwanese startup INT Tech follows a collaborative approach. INT’s go-to market strategy is based on a collaborative development model through joint ventures and joint development programs that gives partners access to the company’s IP to help them succeed.

And INT’s IP is significant for advancing VR designs. The company demoed its first product at CES 2019, an ultra-high pixel density display (UHPD) platform that will significantly improve the user’s visual experience. The UHPD platform is a proprietary glass-based red/green/blue (RGB) AMOLED display that touts the industry’s highest pixel density at >2,200 ppi.

INT also introduced its smart pixel and IC (SPIC) platform. The board-level solution supports the integration of multiple sensors, including fingerprint, eye tracking, ambient light, and proximity, on the same backplane as the display. This means that the sensing area can be as large as the whole display because the sensors are developed on the glass or flexible substrate or integrated on the display’s backplane. By comparison, silicon-based displays, which require a separate layer for the sensors, increase the thickness and limit the active sensing areas.

Motion sensing, in particular, is a key ingredient in the portable designs built around AR/VR applications. And more specialized IMUs are delivering a more immersive experience for users, enabling them to engage with real and virtual environments for a longer period of time, according to contributing writer Majeed Ahmad . These devices are a combination of an accelerometer and a gyroscope that provide the accuracy of fast motion measurements and the granularity of slow-motion measurements, eliminating the effects of motion sickness like nausea. Some of the latest IMU design enhancements like the integration of processing cores and improved image stabilization aim to bolster AR and VR designs.

Contributing writer Carolyn Mathas shares her research on what’s happening in LED technology . She said that miniLEDs, microLEDs, and quantum dots are fiercely challenging incumbent LED technology, and for all of their gains thus far for use in displays, AR/VR applications, vehicles, and TVs, they’re just not there yet. But as the technology improves, there are credible cost-reduction paths for microLEDs, specifically, to compete in the high-end segment of various applications such as TVs, AR, VR, and wearables.

One supplier making significant advances is Plessey Semiconductors. The company demonstrated the first AR/VR glasses powered by microLEDs at CES 2019. The company’s microLED displays for headsets are achieving 10 times the resolution, 100 times the contrast ratio, and up to 1,000 times the luminance of traditional OLEDs with just half the power consumption.

While cameras have revolutionized smartphones, cars, surveillance, and other products offering AR/VR functions, 3D sensors are taking this imaging revolution to the next level by simultaneously detecting and classifying a variety of objects in real time, said Ahmad . 3D sensors are moving beyond smartphones to serve object-detection and -recognition applications in a variety of embedded designs. 3D-sensor–enabled smartphones are playing a key role in driving next-generation interactive visual experiences like AR functions.

The 3D sensing and imaging revolution is here, said Ahmad, and it’s going to disrupt many markets. Just look at how 3D sensing differentiated the iPhone X and how Android phones are struggling to equalize on this front.

Don’t miss our product roundups on 10 hot image sensors — which highlights Infineon Technologies’ REAL3 time-of-flight (ToF) 3D image sensor, which is well-suited for AR applications — and a sampling of components ranging from sensors and display drivers to tactile switches and clocks designed for VR/AR use cases .

Expect to see more design breakthroughs throughout the year thanks to the variety of new component and technology developments aimed at a virtual and augmented world.

Cover Image: Shutterstock