Stanford Researchers Lessen VR Sickness With ‘Stacked Display’ Light Field Stereoscopic VR Headset

Given the fervent hype surrounding the technology, virtual reality is going to be a big part of our future. Of course the same thing was said about 3D content, and we all know how popular that is nowadays, but VR is quite different. Unlike 3D, it actually manages to immerse you in the content, and when a good solution is used, the effect can simply be amazing.

But, with all good things, there must be some caveats, and similar to 3D once again, one of those caveats with VR is the potential dizziness or similar symptoms in some users. But according to Stanford researchers, who presented their own VR headset at SIGGRAPH, it's possible to develop a solution that can get rid of such problems.

The reason people will get dizzy from VR relates to how the light hits their eye, affecting their focus. With improper focus, headaches are bound to occur. With this VR headset, though, a spacer is placed in between two LCD displays, with a backlight panel at the back, and through smart computation, much more natural views will be delivered to each eye.

With this new design, a light-field stereoscope could allow people to use their VR headset for longer periods, and of course reduce or eliminate their potential headaches. Admittedly, I am oversimplifying the tech because it's well beyond my understanding, so if you want to delve deep into this technology, I highly recommend checking out the video above.

It seems unlikely that the researchers themselves would market a VR headset, but if the tech works as well as is promised, it seems inevitable that the design will be used elsewhere.