Kopin and Goertek Launch Era of Seamless Virtual Reality with Cutting-Edge New Reference Design

06/01/17

The Smallest VR Headset – about Half the Size and Weight of Traditional
devices – offers Film-like Images

Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) (“Kopin”) today kicked off the era of
Seamless Virtual Reality. On stage at Augmented World Expo, the Company
showcased a groundbreaking reference design, codenamed Elf VR, for a new
Head-Mounted Display created with its partner Goertek Inc. (“Goertek”),
the world leader in VR headset manufacturing.

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here:
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170601006511/en/

Image of Elf VR courtesy of Kopin Corporation

Image of Elf VR courtesy of Kopin Corporation

When brought to market, the new design will eliminate the barriers that
have long stood in the way of delivering an effective VR experience. In
fact, traditional attempts at VR headsets have been uncomfortably bulky
and heavy, while low resolution and sluggish framerates caused screen
door effect and nausea, making them usable for only tens of minutes at a
time at best.

Kopin’s Lightning Display – A new approach to VR

To resolve these issues, Kopin’s engineers utilized its three decades of
display experience to create “LightningTM” OLED microdisplay
panel, putting an end to the dreaded screen-door effect, with 2048 x
2048 resolution in each eye, more than three times the resolution of
Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, and at an unbelievable pixel density of 2,940
pixels per inch, five times more than standard displays.

Kopin first showcased its Lightning display at CES 2017, to overwhelming
acclaim and a coveted CES Innovation Award. PC
Magazine wrote
that “the most advanced display I saw came from
Kopin” and Anandtech
said
“Seeing is believing…I quite literally could not see anything
resembling aliasing on the display even with a 10x loupe to try and look
more closely.”

In addition, the panel runs at 120Hz refresh rate, 33% faster than what
traditional HMDs offer – for reduced motion blur, latency and flicker.
As a result, nausea and fatigue are eliminated. Because Kopin’s panel is
OLED-based and has integrated driver circuits, it requires much less
power, battery life can be extended, and heat output is substantially
reduced.

“It is now time for us to move beyond our conventional expectation of
what virtual reality can be and strive for more,” explained Kopin
founder and CEO John Fan. “Great progress has been made this year,
although challenges remain. This reference design, created with our
partner Goertek, is a significant achievement. It is much lighter and
fully 40% smaller than standard solutions, so that it can be worn for
long periods without discomfort. At the same time, our OLED microdisplay
panel achieves such high resolution and frame rate that it delivers a VR
experience that truly approaches reality for markets including gaming,
pro applications or film.”

In addition to the game-changing new design, Kopin previously announced
an alliance with BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd. (BOE) and Yunan OLiGHTEK
Opto-Electronic Technology Co.,Ltd. for OLED display manufacturing. As
part of that alliance, all parties will contribute up to an aggregate
$150 million to establish a high-volume, state of the art facility to
manufacture OLED micro-displays to support the growing AR and VR
markets. The new facility, which would be the world’s largest
OLED-on-silicon manufacturing center, will be managed by BOE and is
expected to be built in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China over the next
two years. BOE is the world leader in display panels for mobile phone
and tablets.

Technical specs:

  • Elf VR is equipped with Kopin “Lightning” OLED microdisplay panels,
    which feature 2048 x 2048 resolution of each panel, to provide
    binocular 4K image resolution at 120Hz refresh rate. Combined with
    both 4K Ultra-High image resolution and 120Hz refresh-rate, Elf VR
    provides very smooth images with excellent quality, and effectively
    reduces the sense of vertigo.
  • The Microdisplay panels are manufactured with advanced ultra-precise
    processing techniques. Its pixel density was increased by
    approximately 400% compared to the conventional TFT-LCD, OLED and
    AMOLED display, and the screen size can be reduced to approximately
    1/5 at similar pixel resolution level.
  • Elf VR also adopts an advanced optical solution with a compact
    Multi-Lens design, which enabled it to reduce the thickness of its
    optical module by around 60%, and to reduce the total weight of VR HMD
    by around 50% as well, which can significantly improve the user
    experiences for longtime wearing.
  • The reference design supports two novel optics solutions – 70 degrees
    FOV for film-like beauty or 100 degrees FOV for deep immersion.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements in this press release may be considered “forward-looking”
statements under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include, without limitation,
statements relating to our expectation when brought to market, the new
design will finally eliminate the barriers that have long stood in the
way of delivering an effective VR experience; Kopin has entered into an
alliance with BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd. (BOE) and OLiGHTEK under
which the parties will contribute up to an aggregate $150 million to
establish a high-volume, state of the art facility to manufacture OLED
micro-displays to support the growing AR and VR markets; and the new
facility, which would be the world’s largest OLED-on-silicon
manufacturing center, will be managed by BOE and is expected to be built
in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China over the next two years.
These
statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause
actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the
forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but
are not limited to, the following: the parties may not be able to
contribute the $150 million; government intervention may delay or
prevent the parties from contributing some or all of the $150 million;
government intervention may delay or prevent the facility from being
built; development, production or other issues may prevent the
technology from coming to market; the new design may not work or may not
be able to be produced in a cost effective manner; the agreements with
Goertek, BOE Technology Group Co. Ltd. and OLiGHTEK may be terminated;
the new facility may not be the world’s largest OLED-on-Silicon facility
if completed; the facility may not be built in Kunming, Yunnan Province,
China; if completed it may take more than two years to complete the
facility; AR and VR markets may not grow; there may not be demand for
our products; we may not be able to provide significant quantities of
our consumer OLED displays; there may be issues with obtaining permits,
materials and other issues which may prevent the building of the
facility; the wearable market may not grow fast;
it may take
longer than the Company estimates to develop products; the Company’s
products
may not be accepted by the market place; there may be
issues that prevent the adoption or further development of the Company’s
wearable computing technologies;
manufacturing, marketing or
other issues may prevent either the adoption or acceptance of products;
the Company might be adversely affected by competitive products and
pricing; new product initiatives and other research and development
efforts may be unsuccessful; the Company could experience the loss of
significant customers; costs to produce the Company’s products might
increase significantly, or yields could
decline; the Company’s
customers might be unable to ramp production volumes of their products,
manufacturing delays, technical issues, economic conditions or external
factors may prevent the Company from achieving its goals; and other risk
factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company’s periodic
reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and
Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for the 12
months ended December 31,
2016, and the Company’s subsequent
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not
place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are based
only on information currently available to the Company and only as of
the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to
update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances occurring after the date of this release.

For Product Information
Kopin Corporation
Stuart Nixdorf,
508-870-5959
VP Sale 7 Marketing
snixdorf@kopin.com
or
For
Investor Relations
Kopin Corporation
Richard Sneider, 508-870-5959
Treasurer
and Chief Financial Officer
rsneider@kopin.com
or
Market
Street Partners
Joann Horne, 415-445-3233
JHorne@marketstreetpartners.com
or
Lightspeed
PR
Michael Farino, 714-310-3150
michael@lightspeedpr.com