Fraunhofer says microdisplays will end VR motion sickness and headaches

A small but significant fraction of people experience motion sickness or headaches when using virtual reality headsets, an issue Fraunhofer believes can be remedied with high-speed microdisplays that come closer to users’ eyes. Funded by a European project to popularize tiny but cost-effective screens, the German R&D institute will show prototypes of its new displays next month.

The key to the innovation is a chip design that enables multiple high-resolution OLED-on-silicon microdisplays to work quickly together at high 120Hz framerates. In addition to offering 100,000:1 contrast ratios and ultra-low power consumption, Fraunhofer’s displays include a mode that eliminates flicker and motion artifacts. Thanks to their speed and quality, the displays promise to reduce motion sickness and headaches caused by earlier solutions.