A study of monocular near-to-eye display positions for a navigation task

Wearable computers with near-eye-displays (NEDs) are expected to be fundamental components of the future smart systems, for which several companies are concurrently working. NEDs are designed and commercially available with different display locations; at the top, middle, or bottom of one of the eyes. It is not known how the location of displays and the nature of tasks would influence the comfort of users. In this study, the effects of display positions and the number of turns on visual discomfort of wearing NEDs during navigation tasks were evaluated. The experiment considered four display positions and three number of turns for 2D maze navigation tasks. The eye movement data were recorded by using a Tobii eye tracker, and then blink rates, eye movement velocities, saccades rates, and subjective ratings were analyzed. The results have shown that the blink rates, saccades rate, and eye movement velocities were sensitive to the positions of the displays, where the top-right was marginally more comfortable display position. However, subjective ratings did not show significant differences. It is concluded that monocular NEDs can be used for shorter duration navigation tasks, with a reasonably acceptable level of visual comfort.