At the Vehicle Display Interface (VDI) 2026 conference, we met with Stacy in the Kyocera booth to discuss their bifocal display:

• Purpose: A new take on the electronic rearview mirror (e-mirror). Traditional e-mirrors present a flat image, which creates a harsh, abrupt focal transition for the driver’s eyes when glancing between the road and the mirror. This design aims to soften that transition and feel more realistic/natural, making it easier on the eyes and more user-friendly.

• Technology: Proprietary and currently going through patent review, so specifics weren’t disclosed. It combines a standard TFT display with an optical unit that creates the perceptual effect — described as giving an illusion of depth rather than true 3D (no 3D camera involved), somewhat similar in feel to a collimated display that projects the image at infinity. This is achieved while keeping the same package space/footprint as a conventional e-mirror.

• Interviewer’s impression: Still looks essentially 2D on camera, but with more perceived depth than a flat e-mirror, and clearly an improvement over a standard flat electronic rearview mirror.

• Other form factors: Additional display sizes were shown to illustrate potential uses beyond the mirror — such as a head-down display, center console, or infotainment application.

• Clarifying “bifocal”: Despite the name, Stacy clarified this doesn’t mean two distinct depth fields/focal lengths — it’s primarily a single front-focused effect, though the term “bifocal” is used for the product.