---
title: "Facebook’s Oculus Just Patented a Retina-Resolution VR Display"
description: "Facebook's new VR technology patent describes an eye-tracking display that focuses and blurs things to match your actual field of vision."
date: "2018-12-06"
modified: "2018-12-06"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-oculus-patented-retina-resolution-vr-display"
categories:
  - "Science & Energy"
tags:
  - "facebook"
  - "oculus"
  - "the digest"
  - "virtual reality"
  - "vr"
---

# Facebook’s Oculus Just Patented a Retina-Resolution VR Display

![](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/facebook-oculus-patented-retina-resolution-vr-display.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Varjo/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Laser Focus

Last month, The U.S. Patent Office approved [new Facebook technology](<http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=10140695>) for a virtual reality headset that can track people's vision to focus on specific parts of a VR simulation — just how an eye might.

The new technology is called ["retinal resolution," according to](<https://uploadvr.com/oculus-patent-human-eye-retinal/>) *Upload VR*, and it involves a smaller VR display that presents whatever someone is looking at in high definition, while a larger background display shows the periphery in less detail. This suggests Facebook is investigating ways to give VR the same level of detail that the human eye can process.

## Realize Real Eyes

The idea is to mirror the way an eyeball sees the world. Our eyes have the highest density of rods — the type of light receptor cell that detects detail — packed right in the center of our field of vision.

But rods and cones, their color-detecting counterparts, become increasingly sparse as you travel out to the periphery of your vision. That's why things in the corner of your eye appear blurry — and, believe it or not, [in black-and-white](<https://jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2193447>).

The concept behind Facebook's new VR display concept is that the smaller, moving display would match the high-density region of your vision, focusing whatever [part of a VR simulation](<https://futurism.com/ai-dreams-trippy-video-games-based-real-life>) you're looking at in high definition, and the background would fill in the rest. But it's unclear what purpose Facebook expects this technology to serve — whatever part of a VR experience you're watching will always be in better focus than the periphery because that's how eyes already work all the time.

## 99 Percent Perspiration

Also, it's just a patent. As *Upload VR* reported, this tech may never actually come to fruition. Assuming Facebook's patent holds up in court against [similar technology](<http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=09983413>), the company would still need to then decide that it's worth the investment to put retinal resolution tech into [future Oculus VR headsets](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/ar-facebook-augmented-reality>).

Facebook might hold on to the patent but decide it's not worth actually building out the tech. After all, as long as they're sitting on the legal rights to eye-tracking retinal tech, no one else can bring it to market.

**READ MORE:** [Facebook Wins Patent For Human-Eye 'Retinal' Resolution VR Headset](<https://uploadvr.com/oculus-patent-human-eye-retinal/>) \[*Upload VR*\]

***More on virtual reality: [A New VC Fund Is Bankrolling Virtual Products in a Simulated World](<https://futurism.com/vc-fund-metaverse-ventures-virtual>)***

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)