Autostereoscopic displays for in-vehicle applications

Abstract

Novel technologies like autostereoscopic 3D displays are providing a perception of depth in a scene towards users. Those added spatial informations allow a better user performance in recognizing and classifying on-screen objects as well as enabling better judgements of positions and distances of displayed objects and on-screen elements. Autostereoscopic 3D displays, if implemented user-friendly into Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) or In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS), can increase the effectiveness of such systems by providing distinguishable spatial relationships. Possible applications using an autostereoscopic display where users’ can benefit from spatial cues are for instance the instrument cluster, the navigation device or an intersection assistant. When implemented correctly, 3D displays will allow a better understanding of complex user interfaces and are overall capable of lowering driver distraction and therefore, benefit directly towards traffic safety. We present a study with 40 participants judging the criticality of an intersection manoeuvre in a simulated traffic environment using an autostereoscopic display. The assumption of the experiment is that autostereoscopic monitors in comparison to 2D monitors allow a better assessment of traffic situations in the context of ADAS/IVIS applications. Results show, that 3D displays enable a better accuracy and judgement of positions in simulated traffic situations. While the technology has an impact on the participants’ judgements, perspective does not. Regarding visual fatigue, the usage of autostereoscopic displays seems to be unproblematic despite a long exposure time. Also, regarding the special requirements in content creation we recommend a disparity level with a high perceptual performance and low visual fatigue.