Interpupillary to Inter-Camera Distance of Video See-Through AR and its Impact on Depth Perception
Proceedings of the 32nd IEEE Virtual Reality conference (VR '25), page 537-547. (March 2025)DOI: 10.1109/VR59515.2025.00077
Abstract
Interpupillary distance (IPD) is a crucial characteristic of head-mounted displays (HMDs) because it defines an important property for generating a stereoscopic parallax, which is essential for correct depth perception. This is why contemporary HMDs offer adjustable lenses to adapt to users' individual IPDs.
However, today's Video See-Through Augmented Reality (VST AR) HMDs use fixed camera placements to reconstruct the stereoscopic view of a user's environment.
This leads to a potential mismatch between individual IPD settings and the fixed Inter-Camera Distances (ICD), which in turn can lead to perceptual incongruencies, limiting the usability and potentially the applicability of VST AR in depth-sensitive use cases. To investigate this incongruency between IPD and ICD, we conducted a 2x3 mixed-factor design empirical evaluation using a near-field, open-loop reaching task comparing distance judgments of Virtual Reality (VR) and VST AR. We also explored improvements in reaching performance via perceptual calibration by incorporating a feedback phase between pre- and post-phase conditions, with a particular focus on the influence of IPD-ICD differences. Our Linear Mixed Model (LMM) analysis showed a significant difference between VR and VST AR, a significant effect of IPD-ICD mismatch, as well as a combined effect of both factors. This novel insight and its consequences are discussed specifically for depth perception tasks in AR, eXtended Reality (XR), and potential use cases.
