Evaluation of Depth Perception During a Light Field Head-Mounted Display

Abstract

Purpose : Recently, the remote control of machines using virtual reality technology has been attracting wide attention because it avoids the risk of infection and secondary disasters. However, a concern has been identified that conventional three-dimensional (3D) images worsen the accuracy of work due to deterioration in-depth perception. Therefore, since head-mounted displays (HMDs) based on the light field (LF) technology have the advantage of reproducing light flux for each pixel and creating an environment close to natural vision, we compared the depth of LFHMD, 3DHMD, and real space-based visions in this study.

Methods : A total of 25 young healthy volunteers (mean age: 20.6 ± 0.7 years) participated in the study. First, TransRay^TM (Toppan Inc.), which can construct a virtual space for both LFHMD and 3DHMD at 0.2–1.2 m in front of the eyes; AS-7JS7 (Kowa Co., Ltd.), was used for depth of vision in real space. Then, the LFHMD depth of vision was measured at a reference distance of 0.5 m. Next, the depth of vision in real space was measured at a reference distance of 2.5 m. Subsequently, bilateral stationary targets were used as cones, the central moving target as a sphere, and three reciprocal measurements were made six times at a speed of 5 cm/s.

Results : As observed, although the deviation from the reference distance was insignificantly different between LFHMD (9.0 ± 22.9 mm) and real space (−6.5 ± 9.3 mm; P = 0.092), the deviation from the reference distance was significantly greater in 3DHMD (11.8 ± 32.9 mm) than in real space (P = 0.038).

Conclusions : Thus, our findings propose that LFHMD provides better depth perception closer to real space than 3DHMD.

This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.

 

Figure 1. Experimental environments in Real space (A), LFHMD (B), and 3DHMD (C).
Bilateral stationary targets were used as cones, the central moving target as a sphere, and three reciprocal measurements were made six times at a speed of 5 cm/s.
LFHMD: light field head-mounted display.
3DHMD: three-dimension head-mounted display.