Decipher this: QDNEDs to succeed Samsung’s VR and AR HMDs
Samsung hasn’t given up on head-mounted displays (HMDs), or is at least willing to give them another shot due to recent technological breakthroughs it achieved. At least, that’s what can be inferred from a newly emerged pair of trademark applications the company filed to protect in its home country earlier this week. Those concern the terms NED and QDNED, short for Quantum Dot Near-To-Eye displays, as Samsung calls them. Or, intends to call them, once its applications are cleared.
As for how soon that might happen, South Korean IP authority KIPRIS is so far the only such regulator with whom Samsung submitted the said applications, GalaxyClub reports. In other words: probably not that soon.
NED vs. QNED vs. QDNED
Quantum Dot technology does not need special introductions among our readership as Samsung has been betting enormous sums of its R&D resources on QD-OLEDs being the immediate future of television. In this context, that label essentially means “LCD successors.” At the same time, the company is already looking toward the long term and has identified a likely successor to the nascent QD-OLED segment – QNED, short for Quantum dot Nanorod LED.
But by all accounts, these newly emerged trademarks have nothing to do with QNEDs, despite their monikers sounding way too similar for a couple of actively marketed products. Conceptually, near-to-eye displays seem to hint at a new generation of virtual and/or augmented reality headsets. Which coincides with one particularly curious patent Samsung filed to secure late last year, describing what’s essentially its own version of Google Glass, just better (duh).
At the same time, NEDs, QDNEDs, NED Talks, or however Samsung intends to call them could also end up being an evolution of the company’s mixed-reality Odyssey headsets made for Windows. Whatever ends up being the case, we’ll be sure to keep an eye out for more head-mounted gadgetry from Samsung.
