Binocular see-through configuration and eye movement attenuate visual rivalry in peripheral wearable displays.

Abstract

Visual confusion occurs when two dissimilar images are superimposed onto the same retinal location. In the context of wearable displays, it can be used to provide multiple sources of information to users on top of the real-world scene. While useful, visual confusion may cause visual rivalry that can suppress one of the sources. If two different images are projected to each eye (i.e., monocular displays), it provokes binocular rivalry wherein visual perception intermittently switches between the two images. When a semi-transparent image is superimposed (i.e., see-through displays), monocular rivalry results, causing perceptual alternations between the foreground and the background images. Here, we investigated how these rivalries influence the visibility of the peripheral target using three configurations of wearable displays (i.e., monocular opaque, monocular see-through, and binocular see-through) with three eye movement conditions (i.e., saccades, smooth pursuit, and central fixation). Using the HTC VIVE Eye Pro headset, subjects viewed a forward vection of a 3D corridor with a horizontally moving vertical grating at 10° above the center fixation. During each trial (~1 min), subjects followed a fixation cross that varied in location to induce eye movements and simultaneously reported whether the peripheral target was visible. Results showed that the binocular display had significantly higher target visibility than both monocular displays, and the monocular see-through display had the lowest target visibility. Target visibility was also higher when eye movements were executed, suggesting that the effects of rivalry are attenuated by eye movements and binocular see-through displays.