Virtual reality (VR) devices tend to use OLED, or Organic Light Emitting Diode, displays to create the virtual worlds. OLEDs are also used in smartphones and other devices, so demand is growing. However, few companies actually produce the type of display needed for VR and as demand rises there is some concern about supply. Enter Sharp, who have partnered with Google to develop new displays for VR.

Sharp are working with Google to develop a type of liquid crystal display (LCD) that are capable of faster movement and higher resolution than smartphone displays. The partnership was revealed at a Society for Information Display that took place in Osaka. Google and Sharp are also said to be working on backlight technology along with other display improvements to create a smooth display that has high resolution without after-images or screen burn. There are also reported plans to create technology to improve the response speed of the display.

It’s expected that, once completed, the technology would be installed in Google’s next-generation of VR devices. It is currently unknown if the new display technology is intended for the stand-alone Head Mounted Display (HMD) device that Google is working on with the Vive team and Lenovo.

Google Vice President of VR/AR, Clay Bavor previously hinted at a partnership with a leading electronics firm on the development of a new display, saying that the visual quality if displays was one of VR’s “fundamentally unsolved problems.”

Currently, Samsung are one of the few companies who produce OLED displays suitable for use in VR. As demand rises, there is concern that Samsung could prioritise their own products leading to supply line problems for other manufacturers. A VR display that makes use of abundant LCD parts would lessen this problem.

VRFocus will bring you further new on developments in VR display technology as it becomes available.