Adaptive Depth Cue Adjustments of Interactive and Stereoscopic 3D Product Models for Design Education

Recently, presenting Stereoscopic 3D (S3D) images for product design education has become an option. However, visual discomfort caused by interacting with S3D contents should be minimized. In this research, representative S3D virtual models of automobiles were constructed for experiments. These models were displayed on a 50-inch S3D TV and viewed through polarized glasses. The task was to control the rotation of an automobile and identify the design problems. Thirty students, majored in Industrial Design, were invited to participate in these experiments. The result showed that although S3D images had advantages in the task of dimension and distance estimations, the degree of visual discomfort increased significantly while the participants were interacting with the virtual product model intensively. Furthermore, adaptive adjustments of binocular depth cues, such as disparity, could reduce visual discomfort and accommodate individual differences.