Symptoms analysis of 3D TV viewing based on Simulator Sickness Questionnaires

Stereoscopic 3D TV viewing puts different visual demands on the viewer compared to 2D TV viewing. Previous research has reported on viewers’ fatigue and discomfort and other negative effects. This study is to investigate further how severe and what symptoms may arise from somewhat longish 3D TV viewing. The MPEG 3DV project is working on the next-generation video encoding standard and in this process, MPEG issued a call for proposal of encoding algorithms. To evaluate these algorithms a large scale subjective test was performed involving Laboratories all over the world [(MPEG 2011; Baroncini 2012)]. For the participating Labs, it was optional to administer a slightly modified Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) before and after the test. One of the SSQ data sets described in this article is coming from this study. The SSQ data from the MPEG test is the largest data set in this study and also contains the longest viewing times. Along with the SSQ data from the MPEG test, we have also collected questionnaire data in three other 3D TV studies. We did two on the same 3D TV (passive film pattern retarder) as in the MPEG test, and one was using a projector system. As comparison SSQ data from a 2D video quality experiment is also presented. This investigation shows a statistically significant increase in symptoms after viewing 3D TV primarily related to the visual or Oculomotor system. Surprisingly, 3D video viewing using projectors did not show this effect.