VR’s next horizon: Retina displays right in front of your retinas

Nearly eight years have passed since the world first learned about “Retina Displays,” screens with so many tiny pixels per inch (ppi) that the naked eye could no longer see the individual dots. At a roughly 1-foot distance — about where you hold your smartphone — the eye can’t perceive much more than 300ppi, while at tablet, laptop, desktop computer, and TV distances, the ppi number can go lower and lower without pixels being noticeable.

But the “Retina Display” concept is now only weeks away from taking a major step forward — because of screens that are being placed only an inch or two away from your actual retinas. Recent advances in technology are enabling screen makers to promise 1,000ppi and 2,000ppi displays for virtual reality headsets, and they should appear in public for the first time on May 22 at SID’s Display Week in Los Angeles.