Accommodative Response of Integral Imaging in Near Distance
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70 JOURNAL OF DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 8, NO. 2, FEBRUARY 2012 Accommodative Response of Integral Imaging in Near Distance Youngmin Kim, Jongshin Kim, Keehoon Hong, Hee Kyung Yang, Jae-Hyun Jung, Heejin Choi, Sung-Wook Min, Jong-Mo Seo, Jeong-Min Hwang, and Byoungho Lee Abstract—Objective evaluation results using optometric device 3D image so that it appears as if the regenerated object is in the to measure accommodative responses in viewing a real object real world. However, the coherent light source is necessary in and integral imaging are presented. From the empirical results between the real object and an integrated three-dimensional (3D) general, and it is still hard to reproduce full-color holography image, we find that over 73% of participants keep eyes on the real [5]. Integral imaging is a potential alternative of stereoscopy integrated 3D image instead of a display panel. The results also and holography. It uses an array of small lenses that are spher- show the participants do not recognize a mismatch between the ac- commodative response and the convergence of the eye, which used ical, square, or hexagonal to produce the 3D images which can to be believed as one of the major factors to cause visual fatigue provide both horizontal and vertical parallax, resulting from a in viewing near-distance integral imaging. Seventy-one normal two-dimensional (2D) lens array [3], [6]. It provides different adult subjects (23 38 years old) participated in the experiment, and accommodative response measurement results of the real perspectives according to view directions although the spatial integrated image show a statistically significant concordance with and angular resolutions are in a tradeoff relation. real objects. With the progress of the 3D displays, visual fatigue related to Index Terms—Display human factors, geometrical optics, three- the 3D display has recently emerged again as an important issue. dimensional (3D) displays. Many stereoscopic films were produced in the early 1950s; how- ever, the public interests rapidly declined. One of the main rea- sons was associated with the visual fatigue caused by poor 3D I. INTRODUCTION effects. Since then, great attention has been paid to clarify the cause of visual fatigue related to the 3D images. Researches con- HE three-dimensional (3D) display technique is one of centrated on the 3D images, especially stereoscopic displays, T the most promising ways to express real images. Unlike revealed that causes of visual fatigue included anomalies of the other next-generation display techniques such as an organic binocular vision, distortion error of the eyes, conflict between light-emitting diode (OLED), flexible display, and ultrathin accommodation and convergence of the eye, and an excessive display, only the 3D display technique can depict an exquisite binocular parallax. Among them, conflict between accommo- image of natural world [1]–[4]. Naturalness of the reproduced dation and convergence of the eye has been mentioned as one 3D image varies with the 3D display methods. In an autostereo- of the controversial issues because of the unnatural combina- scopic display method based on either a lenticular lens or a tion of stimuli. The conflict occurs because the accommodative parallax barrier, there is a tradeoff between the number of views response of the eye remains fixed on the display panel, and the and resolution of the reconstructed 3D image. Therefore, the convergence response varies in depth depending on the disparity limitation of the number of views makes the autostereoscopic degrees of display panel. display unnatural, while it is easy to fabricate the lenticular lens Numerous research has attempted to expound an eye fatigue or parallax barrier. Holographic display, which is known as one mechanism caused by mismatch of accommodation and of the most progressive 3D display methods, can reconstruct a convergence in the stereoscopic display [7]–[13]. Despite many attempts to explain the mechanism of eye fatigue in Manuscript received March 15, 2011; revised July 20, 2011; accepted July 26, stereoscopic displays, little research has been conducted both 2011. Date of current version January 25, 2012. This work was supported by the subjectively and objectively in the field of integral imaging. Brain Korea 21 Program (Information Technology of Seoul National University) of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology of Korea. Recently, it was confirmed that there was no significant visual Y. Kim, K. Hong, J.-H. Jung, J.-M. Seo, and B. Lee are with the School fatigue difference between integral imaging method and con- of Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-744, Korea ventional binocular method by ten observers [14]. It was an (e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]). objective evaluation based on biological reactions, such as the J. Kim is with the Graduate School of Medical Science and Engineering, cerebral blood flow observation, the autonomic nervous system, KAIST, Daejeon 305-701, Korea (e-mail: [email protected]). and an endocrine system [14]. These methods were based on H. K. Yang, and J.-M. Hwang are with Department of Ophthalmology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul National University indirect measurement of the eye fatigue which was obtained Bundang Hospital, Gyeonggi-do 463-707, Korea (e-mail: [email protected]; from a biological reaction instead of the direct measurement. [email protected]). It is almost impossible to measure the visual fatigue, therefore H. Choi is with Department of Physics, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, Korea (e-mail: [email protected]). no wonder they approached a way of indirect measurement. S.-W. Min is with Department of Information Display, Kyung Hee University, Optometric devices, such as autorefractor for measurement Seoul 130-701, Korea (e-mail: [email protected]). of mismatch between accommodation and convergence, have Color versions of one or more of the figures are available online at http:// ieeexplore.ieee.org. been applied in comparisons to determine the amount of change Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JDT.2011.2163701 of accommodation in viewing integral imaging [15], [16]. This 1551-319X/$31.00 © 2012 IEEE KIM et al.: ACCOMMODATIVE RESPONSE OF INTEGRAL IMAGING IN NEAR DISTANCE 71 approach can objectively analyze the visual fatigue caused by mismatch between accommodation and convergence. However, so far, measurements of an accommodative response of the eye fatigue in integral imaging have never been examined for large sample size of subjects. In this paper, we present objective evaluation results using an optometric device to measure accommodative responses in viewing a real object and integral imaging. Measurement data for the accommodative response of both the real object and the reconstructed image from integral imaging were obtained from 71 volunteers (30.9 years of average age, ranging from 23 to 38 years, 18% of eyeglasses wearers). The predefined interval of the accommodative response was subdivided into 10 cm in near Fig. 1. Mismatch between accommodation and convergence in viewing 3D dis- distance. We performed statistical analysis to compare distinctly play based on autostereoscopic display. accommodative response of both cases. By the comparison, we could verify that more than 73% of participants stared at the real integrated 3D image from integral imaging instead of the left and right images. The causes have been elusive; this is at- display panel. The data clearly show that accommodation-con- tributed to intricate complex of visual nerve system and it does vergence mismatch, which is mentioned as a possible cause for not appear as a form of resultant visual symptom. visual fatigue when watching 3D displays, did not coincide with Literature mentions that the mismatch between accommoda- integral imaging in near-distance observation. tion and convergence was known as the possible factor for the eye fatigue [18]–[20], but it needs a great deal of debate and research to investigate the eye fatigue mechanism. In viewing II. ASSESSMENT OF THE EYE FATIGUE real objects, both accommodation and convergence response are coupled reflexively. It is referred to as a Donder’s line, which A. Depth Perception and the Causes Leading to the shows the range that is effective in terms of coupled mechanism Eye Fatigue between two stimuli in viewing real scene [21]. On the other When fixed objects are observed by human eyes, the observer hand, the accommodative stimuli are said to be fixed on stereo- uses both psychological and physiological cues to recognize scopic display, while the convergence stimuli vary depending depth information of the objects. The psychological cues in- on the screen disparity as shown in Fig. 1. The mismatch can clude a linear perspective, an overlapping, shading, and texture induce visual fatigue; in particular, the situation becomes se- gradient, which could be generated by computer graphics. The rious in near-range observation of 3D images. Depth perception physiological cues could be classified into an accommodation, in near distance could be affected by binocular disparity, accom- a binocular disparity, a convergence, and a motion parallax. Be- modation, and convergence. The observation of 3D images can cause the two eyes of human are separated horizontally by about be mostly done within 2 3 m. Therefore, the depth percep- 6.5 cm and each eye has its own perspective, slightly different tion in the stereoscopic displays could be strongly affected by images are projected to the retina of each eye. The images are the mismatch inducing the visual fatigue. combined by brain, and the depth information is obtained by Despite relatively vigorous research about visual fatigue in both psychological and physiological cues. The difference be- the field of stereoscopic displays, few have attempted to address tween a real object and a 3D image based on stereoscopic dis- a visual fatigue mechanism in integral imaging.