A comparative study of fine depth perception on two-view 3D displays

In this paper we investigate human binocular depth perception on 3D electronic display technologies. Our study is motivated by the increasing use of 3D displays in applications, including geo-science and medicine, where critical decisions are made using fine binocular depth judgements. We predict subject performance for a depth judgement task using published specifications for seven different 3D displays. A repeated measures, within subjects experimental design is used to determine the effect that display and binocular disparity have on subject scores in the task. We find that there is reliable variation in participant performance with display and disparity, however this variation is not always consistent with our predictions from the display specifications. We also present subjective results that suggest user preference for a 3D display is not always a reliable guide to their ability to perform the task. We conclude that care must be taken in selecting 3D display systems for tasks that critically rely on human depth judgement.