Rapid advances in computer and display technologies have made it possible to present high quality virtual reality (VR) environment. To use such virtual environments effectively, research should be performed into how users perceive and react to virtual environment in view of particular human factors. We created a VR simulation of sea fish for science education, and we conducted an experiment to examine how observers perceive the size and depth of an object within their reach and evaluated their visual fatigue. We chose a multi-projection system for presenting the educational VR simulation, because this system can provide actual-size objects and produce stereo images located close to the observer. The results of the experiment show that estimation of size and depth was relatively accurate when subjects used physical actions to assess them. Presenting images within the observer’s reach is suggested to be useful for education in VR environment. Evaluation of visual fatigue shows that the level of symptoms from viewing stereo images with a large disparity in VR environment was low in a short time.

Date Published: 28 February 2014
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 9012, The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2014, 90120Q (28 February 2014); doi: 10.1117/12.2042622

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9012:
The Engineering Reality of Virtual Reality 2014
Margaret Dolinsky; Ian E. McDowall, Editor(s)