The Effect of Accommodative Demand, Motion Parallax and Age on Virtual Object Localizations

Abstract

Observers adjusted the position of a physical pointer to localize a computer-generated, space-stabilized, virtual object presented monocularly in a see-through, head-mounted display. Each observer rocked side to side to produce motion parallax to determine the depicted distance of the object. The depicted distance (75 and 113 cm) of the virtual object was specified by motion parallax and accommodative demand. Six younger (18-20 years) and six older (40-70 years) observers participated in the study. Both motion parallax and accommodative demand were independent, significant factors driving the localization of virtual objects. Motion parallax was markedly more influential than accommodative demand. Object localization was not affected significantly by the observers' ages, possibly due to the small change in accommodative demand and the relative strength of motion parallax.