Studies of depth judgments in a see-through head-mounted display

The goals of this research are to measure accuracy and precision of depth perception of 3D objects in see-through head-mounted displays for near-field visualization (i.e. within arm length) and to set benchmarks for current technology. In this paper we present results on accuracy and precision of perceived depth for stimuli of various forms (i.e. of varying shapes and sizes) presented either in a side by side or in a top-bottom configuration. A finding of these experiment is the unexpected relatively high human subject variability measured which we postulate to be correlated with aspects of the methodology used. Further investigations on methodology related to these types of experiments are being conducted. Finally, we report a new benchmark for the precision of perceived depth of 7 mm.