Exploring psychophysical factors influencing visibility of virtual image display

Abstract

Mixed reality (MR) or augmented reality (AR) is a very popular displaying technology in various applications. It allows the user to see the real world and virtual image simultaneously, with displaying virtual objects composited with or superimposed upon the real world. Since the usability of interactive user interface based on MR or AR relies heavily on visibility of displaying content, for virtual image display particularly. In this paper, we explore several psychophysical factors that can influence visibility on our virtual image display prototype. Factors include contrast sensitivity, transparency, color, brightness, texture gradient and ambient light. The experiment results reveal many interesting and fascinating features. The features can be the user interface design guidelines for every similar see-through near-eye display system. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.