A Sense of Distance and Augmented Reality for Stereoscopic Vision

Head-up displays (HUDs) give visual information to drivers in an easy to understand manner and prevent traffic accidents. Augmented reality head-up displays (AR-HUDs) display the driving information overlaid on the actual scenery. The AR-HUD must allow the visual information and the actual scene to be viewed at the same time, and a sense of depth and distance are key factors in achieving this. Binocular parallax used in stereoscopic 3D display is one of the most useful methods of providing a sense of depth and distance. Generally, stereoscopic 3D displays must limit the image range to within Panum’s fusional area to ensure fusion of the stereoscopic images. However, when using a stereoscopic 3D display for an AR-HUD, the image range must extend beyond Panum’s fusional area to allow the visual information and the actual scene to be displayed at the same time. In this study, we investigate the visibility of images displayed beyond Panum’s fusional area on a stereoscopic 3D display for an AR-HUD. Ease of fusion was measured by the recognition time for participants watching remote projector images and parallax images displayed at the same time beyond Panum’s fusional area. We found that one group of participants was unable to recognize the relationship between the two images under certain conditions.