Search for: All records

Virtual Reality (VR) technology has advanced to include eye-tracking, allowing novel research, such as investigating how our visual system coordinates eye movements with changes in perceptual depth. The purpose of this study was to examine whether eye tracking could track perceptual depth changes during a visual discrimination task. We derived two depth-dependent variables from eye tracker data: eye vergence angle (EVA) and interpupillary distance (IPD). As hypothesized, our results revealed that shifting gaze from near-to-far depth significantly decreased EVA and increased IPD, while the opposite pattern was observed while shifting from far-to-near. Importantly, the amount of change in these variables tracked closely with relative changes in perceptual depth, and supported the hypothesis that eye tracker data may be used to infer real-time changes in perceptual depth in VR. Our method could be used as a new tool to adaptively render information based on depth and improve the VR user experience. 

Many augmented reality (AR) applications require observers to shift their gaze between AR and real-world content. To date, commercial optical see-through (OST) AR displays have presented content at either a single focal distance, or at a small number of fixed focal distances. Meanwhile, real-world stimuli can occur at a variety of focal distances. Therefore, when shifting gaze between AR and real-world content, in order to view new content in sharp focus, observers must often change their eye’s accommodative state. When performed repetitively, this can negatively affect task performance and eye fatigue. However, these effects may be under reported, because past research has not yet considered the potential additional effect of distracting real world backgrounds.An experimental method that analyzes background effects is presented, using a text-based visual search task that requires integrating information presented in both AR and the real world. An experiment is reported, which examined the effect of a distracting background versus a blank background, at focal switching distances of 0, 1.33, 2.0, and 3.33 meters. Qualitatively, a majority of the participants reported that the distracting background made the task more difficult and fatiguing. Quantitatively, increasing the focal switching distance resulted in reduced task performance and increased eye fatigue. However, changing the background, between blank and distracting, did not result in significant measured differences. Suggestions are given for further efforts to examine background effects. 

For optical see-through augmented reality (AR), a new method for measuring the perceived three-dimensional location of virtual objects is presented, where participants verbally report a virtual object’s location relative to both a vertical and horizontal grid. The method is tested with a small (1.95 × 1.95 × 1.95 cm) virtual object at distances of 50 to 80 cm, viewed through a Microsoft HoloLens 1 st generation AR display. Two experiments examine two different virtual object designs, whether turning in a circle between reported object locations disrupts HoloLens tracking, and whether accuracy errors, including a rightward bias and underestimated depth, might be due to systematic errors that are restricted to a particular display. Turning in a circle did not disrupt HoloLens tracking, and testing with a second display did not suggest systematic errors restricted to a particular display. Instead, the experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that, when looking downwards at a horizontal plane, HoloLens 1 st generation displays exhibit a systematic rightward perceptual bias. Precision analysis suggests that the method could measure the perceived location of a virtual object within an accuracy of less than 1 mm. 

Usable x-ray vision has long been a goal in augmented reality research and development. X-ray vision, or the ability to view and understand information presented through an opaque barrier, would be imminently useful across a variety of domains. Unfortunately, however, the effect of x-ray vision on situation awareness, an operator's understanding of a task or environment, has not been significantly studied. This is an important question; if x-ray vision does not increase situation awareness, of what use is it? Thus, we have developed an x-ray vision system, in order to investigate situation awareness in the context of action space distances.