Perceiving layered information on 3D displays using binocular disparity

Abstract

ABSTRACT3D displays are hitting the mass market. They are integrated in consumer TVs, notebooks, and mobile phones and are mainly used for virtual reality as well as video content. We see large potential in using depth also for structuring information. Our specific use case is 3D displays integrated in cars. The capabilities of such displays could be used to present relevant information to the driver in a fast and easy-to-understand way, e.g., by functionality-based clustering. However, excessive parallaxes can cause discomfort and in turn negatively influence the primary driving task. This requires a reasonable choice of parallax boundaries. The contribution of this paper is twofold. First, we identify the comfort zone when perceiving 3D content. Second, we determine a minimum depth distance between objects that still enables users to quickly and accurately separate the two depth planes. The results yield that in terms of task completion time the optimum distance from screen level is up to 35.9 arc-min angular disparity behind the screen plane. A distance of at least 2.7 arc-min difference in angular disparity between the objects significantly decreases time for layer separation. Based on the results we derive design implications.

Exploring Design Parameters for a 3D Head-Up Display

“…They did not use a see-through display but viewing distances of up to 10 m. In comparison, our study addresses several VIDs above 1 m and we aim to find values that define the comfort zone for the tested VSDs of a see-through display. In accordance to the approach of Broy et al [1], we use the medians and the quartiles of the data to define a comfort zone. The resulting data set is available for public use from our website 2 .…”

“…We aggregate the data due to the outcome that there are no statistical significances between two and three depth layers. Broy et al [1] compared the number of depth layers as well and also show that one depth layer provides larger comfort zones than two depth layers. Yet, their study does not investigate more than two layers.…”

“…We aim to find out the participants' individual comfort zones by asking them to alter the depth position of the virtual objects to the borders of their comfort zones. This approach is similar to Broy et al [1]. In this way, we identify the maximum and minimum depth positon relative to the respective VSD at which the viewer is still able to fuse content in a comfortable way.…”

“…There are several studies that investigated the comfort zone [1,5,9,15] of 3D displays. However, these studies investigate small viewing distances and do not apply see-through displays.…”

“…However, as prior work on the use of stereoscopic 3D displays in the car suggests, the use of extreme parallaxes may cause discomfort and, hence, may have a negative influence on the driver [1]. Furthermore, to present image content so that the driver perceives it at the respective location matching the real world the accuracy of depth judgment in a stereoscopic see-through display has to be explored.…”