The effects of fast disparity adjustment in gaze-controlled stereoscopic applications

Abstract

With the emergence of affordable 3D displays, stereoscopy is becoming a commodity. However, often users report discomfort even after brief exposures to stereo content. One of the main reasons is the conflict between vergence and accommodation that is caused by 3D displays. We investigate dynamic adjustment of stereo parameters in a scene using gaze data in order to reduce discomfort. In a user study, we measured stereo fusion times after abrupt manipulation of disparities using gaze data. We found that gaze-controlled manipulation of disparities can lower fusion times for large disparities. In addition we found that gaze-controlled disparity adjustment should be applied in a personalized manner and ideally performed only at the extremities or outside the comfort zone of subjects. These results provide important insight on the problems associated with fast disparity manipulation and are essential for developing appealing gaze-contingent and gaze-controlled applications.