Distortion of depth perception in virtual environments using stereoscopic displays: Quantitative assessment and corrective measures

The aim of the presented research was to quantify the distortion of depth perception when using stereoscopic displays. The visualization parameters of the used virtual reality system such as perspective, haploscopic separation and width of stereoscopic separation were varied. The experiment was designed to measure distortion in depth perception according to allocentric frames of reference. The results of the experiments indicate that some of the parameters have an antithetic effect which allows to compensate the distortion of depth perception for a range of depths. In contrast to earlier research which reported underestimation of depth perception we found that depth was overestimated when using true projection parameters according to the position of the eyes of the user and display geometry.