Nvidia creates a high-resolution display from two low-res panels

[Scorpus]

Researchers at Nvidia have developed a method to produce low-cost, high-resolution displays by simply layering two LCD panels on top of each other. The technique can quadruple the effective resolution of a standalone display, and could lead to cheap screens for head-mounted devices like the Oculus Rift.

The idea behind what Nvidia calls 'cascaded displays' is that there are transparent gaps between the individual pixels in an LCD panel. By placing another LCD panel behind the first one, and offsetting it by a quarter-pixel, additional pixels can shine through the gaps to provide extra resolution.

The way images are created on the cascaded display is quite complex, with each display providing a fragment of subpixels used for a single effective pixel. Custom display software is necessary to drive this screen, as you might imagine, and some clever coding can achieve refresh rates above 60 Hz.

For testing purposes, Nvidia used two seven-inch 1280 x 800 LCD panels from a cheap Chinese manufacturer in their cascaded display. While the spatial resolution is quadrupled through the layering of the panels, the true resolution isn't four times as large; images produced look sharper and of a higher resolution, but not as good as a true 2560 x 1600 display.

There are some issues with stacking displays, including distortion (which can be corrected in software), a reduction in display brightness and narrow viewing angles. However, it could be a viable solution for producing cheap head-mounted displays for virtual reality systems.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/57556-nvidia-creates-a-high-resolution-display-from-two-low-res-panels.html

 

[wastedkill]

Thats pretty cool but you can see its not perfect by the bottom of the two offset layers image, dunno about you but when I first read it I was thinking "So they just stuck 2 displays together? what about 2 1080P screens...." xD

 

[Puiu]

It's an interesting idea, but it's too late. 4k displays are becoming cheaper and cheaper. if they push this for a consumer version then we'll have to wait around 2 years for it to come out. there's also the problem of thickness, size, power consumption, refresh rates and other technical difficulties.

 

[Guest]

It's an interesting idea, but it's too late. 4k displays are becoming cheaper and cheaper. if they push this for a consumer version then we'll have to wait around 2 years for it to come out. there's also the problem of thickness, size, power consumption, refresh rates and other technical difficulties.

Cheaper than 2 full hd chinesse lcds? I doubt it very much...

 

[Guest]

Does this also mean I have 'superman's visual acuity' since I have some form of internal squint?

I am really amazed at these engineers...memory stacking, trigate, cascaded dsiplays, etc.

 

[Guest]

FAKE
2 x 1280 x 800 = 2560 x 800 or 1280 x 1600
and never ever 2560 x 1600
it sooo simple

 

[Ralpb]

Close. From the described offset, it will approximate increasing each axis by the square root of two. If the color triad is shared between layers, red from one layer and blue-green from the other, this resolution will increase by 4/pi. Combined is about 1.8.

 

[Guest]

Using this technology, now we can have a cheap 4K led tv.. oh wait, even better, maybe we can have 8K led tv next year!!

 

[Jad Chaar]

It's an interesting idea, but it's too late. 4k displays are becoming cheaper and cheaper. if they push this for a consumer version then we'll have to wait around 2 years for it to come out. there's also the problem of thickness, size, power consumption, refresh rates and other technical difficulties.

Well said.

 

[EEatGDL]

It's an interesting idea, but it's too late. 4k displays are becoming cheaper and cheaper. if they push this for a consumer version then we'll have to wait around 2 years for it to come out. there's also the problem of thickness, size, power consumption, refresh rates and other technical difficulties.

Never too late my friend, one of the possible target applications is the Oculus Rift, which could get even cheaper. The cheapest ASUS 28" 4K 60 Hz display is 3 times the cost of the cheapest ASUS 28" 1080p display, and here is one observation: those are retail prices, not the real cost, and the two panels would use a single chip, backlight and bessel for both -so the cost is not even linear. In theory, they could sell one "fake 4K" monitor with this technique at less than double [let's say 160%] the price of one 1080p monitor.

 

[Guest]

2*(LCD of 1280*800 pixels) is simply 2*1280*800 pixels total. It's also (1280*800) + (1280*800) total pixels. Without loss of generality, consider an LCD of 3*2 pixels, represented by "-":

- - -

- - -


Let's look at 2 LCD's of 3*2 pixels:

- - -

- - -



- - -

- - -


Lets combine them, very carefully, perhaps, I will have to stretch one when pixels are made out of "-", but I am only examining the amount of pixels:


- - -

- - -

+
- - -

- - -

=
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
or,
- - - - - -

- - - - - -
or,
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -

The last option, some form of staggering, is perhaps the most useful, as BOTH vertical and horizontal density have increased (but not doubled), though with "distortion" as the grid is not longer of right angles typical in LCD panels. If you count, there are 12. with is 2*(3*2), NOT and NEVER 2*3 * 2*2. Amount of pixels doubled, and would need to be quadrupled for 2560*1600.

Thought: Layer 40 for 25600*16000

 

[cliffordcooley]

Lets do a simple demo for those that don't understand how this can nearly quadruple the pixel count. With the exception of the surrounding border, each pixel is split in quarters.

 

[Guest]

1 LCD 1280 X 800 = 1.024.000 pixel or 1M
2 LCD 1280 X 800 = 2.048.000 pixel or 2M
1 LCD 2560 X 1600= 4.096.000 pixel or 4M

and everybody go back to school plz

 

[Puiu]

Never too late my friend, one of the possible target applications is the Oculus Rift, which could get even cheaper. The cheapest ASUS 28" 4K 60 Hz display is 3 times the cost of the cheapest ASUS 28" 1080p display, and here is one observation: those are retail prices, not the real cost, and the two panels would use a single chip, backlight and bessel for both -so the cost is not even linear. In theory, they could sell one "fake 4K" monitor with this technique at less than double [let's say 160%] the price of one 1080p monitor.

the response time for such monitors is really bad. they also add artifacting which is very visible when viewed from up close. it's also too large and heavy to be use as a head mounted display. the oculus rift is a bad example. it's cheaper and better if oculus just uses a regular 2160p screen that has none of these problems than a fake 4k one. (although I suspect that the consumer version will have a 1080p screen and latter versions will bump the screen resolution)
I can see this being used in some really cheap monitors, but beyond that it's not really good.