Evaluation of Eye-Dominance Effects on Target-Acquisition Tasks Using a Head-Coupled Monocular Hmd

Abstract

Monocular head-mounted displays (HMDs) require operators to place an eyepiece over only one of their eyes, raising the potential for eye-dominance performance differences. This issue is likely to be magnified when the task at hand requires frequent shifts of visual attention from head-coupled imagery to a fixed-CRT display. A study was conducted to determine the effects of eye dominance on a dual-display target-search task. Eight participants determined the presence/absence of a target amongst several decoys while using a head-coupled, see-through, monocular HMD in combination with a fixed-CRT display. Performance data did not reveal any significant eye-dominance effects. Additionally, there were no significant effects on participants' subjective preference between dominant and non-dominant eye for this task. Finally, it took significantly more time to determine that a target was not present than to identify a target that was present. However, there was a trend for female subjects to search longer before concluding that a target was absent.