Kopin showed RoadtoVR a prototype based on a 2K VR microdisplay last week, and people are curious as to when the screen will be released. Kopin and its production partner Goerix said that the first product to integrate "Lightning" displays is scheduled to be available by the end of 2018.
Despite its perfect function, Kopin's "Elf" head is not a consumer product but a demonstration of the 2K 120Hz Lightning display:
One important thing to remember is that Elf's head will not become a product. It is just a demonstration of Kopin's VR microdisplay and Goeor's stock manufacturing capabilities. Kopin hopes that a consumer electronics company will produce a product based on Lighting's display, and Elf's head will be presented as a demonstration. Goergi said that they are actively promoting Elf's headline to potential consumer electronics companies. This means that the final product incorporating the Lighting display may be different from today's Elf head. In fact, although Elf is a captive head, Kopin said that the foundation of this head-up is also applicable to mobile VR all-in-ones.
Goergets (Kopin's partner, and one of the manufacturers behind Oculus Rift and PSVR) stated that the first product to integrate Lightning displays is expected to be available by the end of 2018, which means there are currently five quarters of the time.
During this period, their task was to find partners who believed in the Elf printer and decided to manufacture the product. It is understood that Kopin and Goss shares are showing head-up prototypes to a series of companies.
One of the highlights of Elf's headline is its compact and lightweight design. Kopin's prototype is only 220 grams, less than half the weight of Rift and Vive (in fairness, this is just a prototype, most of them lack some additional hardware). Of course, it has an incredible 2K Lighting display, with more than three times the pixels of the leading display products on the market today; and a refresh rate of up to 120Hz (but I found in practice that the cost of this advantage is Low field of view).
Another reason why the time-to-market is set at the end of 2018 is that the displays and lenses are still actively being developed. It takes some time before the mass production of Kopin, and they expect to have the capacity to produce 5 million heads in 2019.
Before that, Kopin still needed to solve certain challenges. On the one hand, the display needs to be brighter based on the optics they use. They hope to double their brightness when they begin shipping displays, but it is unclear whether the product has enough brightness to achieve low vision retention (this is a key technology to reduce blurring). Kopin also showed three different lenses, different designs, and different fields of view, but the product is still under development.
A major issue is whether traditional display manufacturers can release next-generation VR displays before Lighting displays, potentially providing another solution for VR heads with greater pixel density. For example, Samsung demonstrated a new 2K VR display in May, but it is still unclear when Samsung will open up its purchases to head-display makers.
In the long run, Kopin and Goerer said they invested $150 million to build a new display factory so that they could build larger and higher resolution VR microdisplays. According to the company's roadmap, their goal is to produce a 1.3-inch 3K display and then a 1.37-inch 4K display at the right time.