Microdisplay Supplier Sees Making VR Consumer Inroads

EMagin sees 2016 as an “important year” for its “strategic focus” of adapting technology it has perfected in its “core” military business and “making inroads into the consumer market” for high-contrast, high-brightness virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets, CEO Andrew Sculley said on a Thursday earnings call. The technology advancement “that we pioneered for our military work really sets a standard and expectation also in the consumer marketplace,” he said. “The features in today’s consumer VR and AR applications will not satisfy the user” very long, he said. “As the novelty of these new devices begins to wear off, the consumer will start looking for a higher-quality experience and the manufacturers of the headsets will look for better displays.” There are a “number of consumer companies with whom we've discussed our road map” for migrating military-grade OLED microdisplay technology for VR and AR consumer headsets, Sculley said. For an AR or VR headset to be successful, it “must be small for comfort like a pair of glasses,” Sculley said. Discussions are “ongoing” with “very significant interested parties,” Sculley said. In December, eMagin completed a “strategic licensing" deal with an unnamed partner that makes eMagin’s supplying of the OLED microdisplays part of the overall intellectual property deal for that partner's VR and AR headsets, he said.