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Samsung is working on a new AMOLED display panel specifically designed for virtual reality applications, according to a new trademark the company filed with the European Union Intellectual Property Office several days back. The South Korean tech giant is now seeking to secure the rights to the term “Anti SDE AMOLED,” with “SDE” presumably being an abbreviation for the “screen-door effect,” a VR phenomenon wherein users occasionally have their immersion broken after noticing a grid-like shape overlayed over the content they’re watching.
The screen-door effect is caused by the spaces that exist between pixels, effectively forming a mesh grid, and while users of higher-resolution screens such as the QHD+ ones found on Samsung’s Android flagships have lower chances of experiencing them, they remain one of VR’s biggest issues. The firm’s newest trademark application doesn’t specify whether the Anti SDE AMOLED panel is meant to be implemented into a smartphone or if that’s the intended moniker of a screen found inside a standalone VR headset, a product category that Samsung has yet to truly explore. The technical specifications of Samsung’s solution remain equally unclear, though the Seoul-based original equipment manufacturer is far from the first company to attempt combating the screen-door effect. Last year, LG patented a technology meant to do the same with the help of unconventional light diffusers.
Samsung has been touting the VR capabilities of its high-end smartphones as some of their main selling points for several years until it largely stopped doing so this year. While the Galaxy S9 lineup is compatible with its Gear VR line of headsets, no new head-mounted hardware has been launched by the company this year and another piece of headgear is unlikely to debut alongside the upcoming Galaxy Note 9 which is scheduled to be officially announced on August 9. The Galaxy S10 family expected to be introduced in early 2019 may offer significant VR improvements compared to the product generation that preceded it, with recent rumors pointing to at least one Android flagship with a pixel density of 600 pixels per inch being in the works.
