Temporal presentation protocols in stereoscopic displays: Flicker visibility, perceived motion, and perceived depth

Abstract

Most stereoscopic displays rely on field-sequential presentation to present different images to the left and right eyes. With sequential presentation, images are delivered to each eye in alternation with dark intervals, and each eye receives its images in counter phase with the other eye. This type of presentation can exacerbate image artifacts including flicker, and the appearance of unsmooth motion. To address the flicker problem, some methods repeat images multiple times before updating to new ones. This greatly reduces flicker visibility, but makes motion appear less smooth. This paper describes an investigation of how different presentation methods affect the visibility of flicker, motion artifacts, and distortions in perceived depth. It begins with an examination of these methods in the spatio-temporal frequency domain. From this examination, it describes a series of predictions for how presentation rate, object speed, simultaneity of image delivery to the two eyes, and other properties ought to affect flicker, motion artifacts, and depth distortions, and reports a series of experiments that tested these predictions. The results confirmed essentially all of the predictions. The paper concludes with a summary and series of recommendations for the best approach to minimize these undesirable effects.

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“…This binocular flicker interaction has been reported previously. 26,11 On the spatial-multiplexed display, the same stimulus produced no visible flicker even at maximum brightness.…”

“…The issue of temporal delays to one eye causing depth distortion is fairly well known. [9][10][11][12] The theory that there is independent monocular filtering prior to disparity computation leads to the prediction that the magnitude of a depth distortion (δ, deg) δ = β*s in which the β represents the binocular (interocular) delay (seconds) and s represents stimulus speed (deg/s). Thus, the magnitude of depth distortion is proportional to speed and interocular delay.…”

“…We assessed the depth distortion quantitatively using a depth-nulling task similar to Hoffman et al 2011. 11 We presented two rows of white squares moving horizontally across the screen in opposite directions. The boxes were 1°square and spaced 3°apart.…”

Model for quantifying blur‐free motion of a Briggs roam target moving at 15 deg/s

“…With regard to spatial stimulus, a person with 20/20 vision cannot discern objects whose spatial resolution is less than 1 arcmin. 3 At a viewing distance of about 18 in., this translates to objects smaller than 0.133 mm or spatial frequencies greater than 60 cycles per degree. With regard to temporal stimulus, the sensitivity of the average person to flicker depends on the luminance of the source.…”

“…The larger green diamond represents the threshold of the human visual system. (Ideally, the human spatio-temporal contrast sensitivity function should be represented as a fourpointed star 3 with the width of the points being dependent on the contrast of the target being evaluated. Because this paper will focus on the information along the spatial and temporal axes, the diamond shape is considered adequate.)…”