The technology company mostly known for its graphics cards, Nvidia, has applied for a patent for a new type of Holographic VR display. The patent application seems to involve a display that is placed on a head-mounted gear and would work as a virtual reality headset. Nvidia's intentions are not on display in the patent application, and it is only a technical explanation of the potential technology, but this could prove to be one of the first gaming-focused Holographic VR headsets on the market.
Nvidia is a conglomerate working in software development and hardware manufacturing. While it became known as a graphics card manufacturer in the 1990s, Nvidia has since grown to produce myriad of semiconductor applications, software solutions, and consumer goods. In the gaming field, in addition to its GeForce graphics cards, Nvidia offers the likes of Shield gaming devices and game streaming platform GeForce Now.
The patent application by Nvidia is first and foremost described as a Holographic Virtual Reality Display. While this doesn't distinguish immediately that it is indeed designed for use in headsets, the background of the technology and the detailed description reveal that is intended to be placeable on head-mounted displays. Of course, the most popular head-mounted displays in the consumer space are traditional VR devices, like the gaming-oriented Meta Quest headsets.
This isn't the first holographic headset on the market. In fact, Microsoft's HoloLens project has been working on Holographic head-mounted displays for years. However, those aren't, strictly speaking, VR headsets. Microsoft's HoloLens uses what is called Augmented Reality to project images on top of regular field of vision. Nvidia doesn't seem to be aiming to reproduce Microsoft's product, although it does mention that the technology could be used in AR and Mixed Reality applications.
Nvidia's descriptions of the device specifically call the device a virtual reality display, which suggests that this is likely aimed for more than adding content on top of the users view. This also suggests that there might be more gaming related holographic purposes. Games are mentioned as possible form of entertainment consumed on the device, game controllers as an input device, and game consoles as a source of the displayed image. Unfortunately, the patent images don't give any indication of the products the technology is intended to be used in, as per usual.
As with all patents, this doesn't mean that Nvidia necessarily has a product on its development pipeline using the technology at this point. The company could simply be trying to position itself better as virtual reality games are becoming more popular. However, it definitely shows the company is working on developing a technology to make that happen.