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Using biomechanics to investigate the effect of VR on eye vergence system
Vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) is the main contributor to visual fatigue during immersion in virtual environments. Many studies have investigated the effects of VAC using 3D displays and expensive complex apparatus and setup to create natural and conflicting viewing conditions. However, a lim...
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Published in: | Applied ergonomics 2019-11, Vol.81, p.102883-102883, Article 102883 |
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Main Authors: | , , |
Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Subjects: | |
Citations: | Items that this one cites Items that cite this one |
Online Access: | Get full text |
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Summary: | Vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) is the main contributor to visual fatigue during immersion in virtual environments. Many studies have investigated the effects of VAC using 3D displays and expensive complex apparatus and setup to create natural and conflicting viewing conditions. However, a limited number of studies targeted virtual environments simulated using modern consumer-grade VR headsets. Our main objective, in this work, is to test how the modern VR headsets (VR simulated depth) could affect our vergence system, in addition to investigating the effect of the simulated depth on the eye-gaze performance. The virtual scenario used included a common virtual object (a cube) in a simple virtual environment with no constraints placed on the head and neck movement of the subjects. We used ocular biomechanics and eye tracking to compare between vergence angles in matching (ideal) and conflicting (real) viewing conditions. Real vergence angle during immersion was significantly higher than ideal vergence angle and exhibited higher variability which leads to incorrect depth cues that affects depth perception and also leads to visual fatigue for prolonged virtual experiences. Additionally, we found that as the simulated depth increases, the ability of users to manipulate virtual objects with their eyes decreases, thus, decreasing the possibilities of interaction through eye gaze. The biomechanics model used here can be further extended to study muscular activity of eye muscles during immersion. It presents an efficient and flexible assessment tool for virtual environments.
•Vergence accommodation conflict (VAC) affects vergence angle and eye-gaze performance when using commercially-available VR headsets•Vergence angles has a higher variability in VR than in natural viewing conditions which causes visual fatigue and also mis-perception of depth.•Increasing the simulated depth of objects decrease the ability to fixate correctly on the object's surface.•It is recommended to design VR with interactive objects of large size at nearer planes rather than further planes to enhance eye-gaze performance.•Biomechanical simulation was used to simulate natural viewing conditions |
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ISSN: | 0003-6870 1872-9126 |
DOI: | 10.1016/j.apergo.2019.102883 |