New lighting technology places LCD over OLED for higher contrast, clarity and energy efficiency in VR headsets

Modulated Subpupil Lighting leverages eye tracking to turn off the light that misses our eye pupil, dramatically decreasing stray light for maximum image quality.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Panamorph, Inc., the world's leading manufacturer of anamorphic projection optics for consumer applications, today announced the success of its multi-patented Modulated Subpupil Lighting (MSL) technology to achieve record levels of contrast and clarity through VR headset optical systems while decreasing power requirements by over 95%.

"This all started years ago when we recognized that all that light spraying around our eyes from a VR headset is a waste," said Shawn Kelly, Panamorph's founder. "If we can turn that light off then it would mean a lot longer battery life and maybe even eliminate the need for cooling. But that wasted light is also responsible for almost all of the stray light that ultimately enters our eyes to reduce contrast and clarity, especially with pancake and Fresnel lenses that are now so popular. As simple and low-cost as it is, MSL solves all three issues at once while also increasing depth of field to aid in vergence-accommodation conflict."

MSL projects the light from each of an array of LEDs through the entire LCD panel to form an image of that LED array in the optical system exit pupil. Each LED therefore corresponds to a "subpupil" in the exit pupil. Since the entire image is visible through any subpupil, only that LED corresponding to the subpupil passing through the user's eye is made active. All other LEDs, over 95% of the total, are turned off, reducing power and eliminating that contribution to stray light. Further, if the active subpupil is smaller than the eye pupil then optical aberrations are decreased for higher clarity and greater depth of field.

"The fact is that while an OLED display has almost an infinite native contrast, the contrast we actually see through the lens is quite low due to all that light scattering," continued Kelly. "So even though an LCD has lower native contrast, the net visual contrast with MSL is more than double what we see with an emissive display."

The company plans to sell the new technology to an LCD or headset manufacturer for ultimate product integration. For more information see www.panamorph.com/MSL.

SOURCE Panamorph, Inc.