Depth perception through adaptive 3D view perspective and motion parallax

Abstract

The past few years have shown the growth in three-dimensional (3D) content and stereoscopic 3D displays. These displays aim to provide realism through an illusion of depth to the viewers. However, stereoscopic 3D displays are only prevalent as larger format displays like television sets and cinemas because of specialized hardware requirements. This research provides a method for users to perceive depth through monocular depth cues and motion parallax on 2D displays. The system developed is composed of a head tracking system that detects the position and movement of the user and a 3D graphics feedback mechanism that changes the perspective as seen by the viewer. The overall system was implemented on a mobile tablet, with users viewing a scene on the display and making use of its front camera as input. The tests done with the system show that users can perceive depth through lateral and forward-backward head movements while viewing the screen. This change in perspective also provided users a different way to manipulate the displayed content through their head movement, opening up as an alternative input method for games and applications.