The Analytic Distortion Induced by False-Eye Separation in Head-Tracked Stereoscopic Displays

Abstract

Stereoscopic display is a fundamental part of virtual reality systems such as the virtual workbench, the CAVE and HMD systems. A common practice in stereoscopic systems is deliberate incorrect modeling of user eye separation. Under estimating eye separation can help the human visual system fuse stereo image pairs into single 3D images, while over estimating eye separation enhances image depth. Unfortunately, false eye separation modeling also distorts the perceived 3D image in undesirable ways. We present a novel analytic expression and quantitative analysis of this distortion for eyes at an arbitrary location and orientation.