Nvidia researchers have discovered a way to quadruple display resolution by stacking low cost LCD panels on top of each other. Nvidia calls this technique cascaded displays, and has already built a prototype using a 3D printer that looks similar to the Oculus Rift.
To make the display Nvidia researchers users two 7-inch 1280×800 LCD monitors and removed them from their casings. Then they removed the backlight from one panel which will eventually be the front panel in the stack. A quarter wave film is placed between the two panels to reduce polarization conflict. The two panels are placed in front of each other, with a slight (quarter-pixel) offset that acts as a "shutter” for a cluster of four pixels on the rear panel. Nvidia is also developing a special software to drive this new cascaded display.
Nvidia says that cascaded displays could be instrumental in developing cheap, ultra-high-resolution screens that can be used in making head-mounted displays like the Oculus Rift. The Rift, currently uses a low-resolution screen which can be unpleasant when the pixels are really close to the eyes. By stacking the LCD's the screen resolution would be quadrupled to provide a wider field of view. The images produced by the cascaded display are not as good as the full resolution target image, but is vastly improved from the original 1,280 x 800 panels. The panels are also less bright than a typical screen and have poor viewing angles, but could pave the wave to make affordable, high definition electronics.
Nvidia has recently launched the Shield gaming tablet powered by a Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with a quad-core 2.2 GHz processor coupled with 2GB of RAM. The tablet has an 8 inch display with 1920 x 1200 pixels resolution. It is available in 16GB (Wi-Fi only model) and 32GB (Wi-Fi +LTE model) variants. It supports dual auto-focus 5MP cameras. Nvidia is also offering an optional wireless gaming controller with the tablet.
Source: Nvidia