Effects of depth perception cues and display types on presence and cybersickness in the elderly within a 3D virtual store

As the population ages, home computers with an Internet connection can provide the elderly with a new way to access information and services and manage Internet shopping tasks. One of the primary advantages of virtual environment (VE) technology for online shopping is its ability to provide a three-dimensional (3D) perspective to customers for a more realistic sense of the goods and the shopping environment. A sense of presence is one of the critical components required for an effective VE. However, side effects such as cybersickness may be caused by the display medium. When the quality of depth perception cues is poor, will the elderly’s experience of cybersickness influence their feeling of presence and performance of goods searching during exposure within a 3D virtual store with 3D displays? An experiment addressed associations among presence, cybersickness, and performance in a 3D virtual store with autostereoscopic, stereoscopic and monocular displays with good and poor depth perception cues in an elderly sample. The results showed that the virtual store with an autostereoscopic display with high-quality depth perception cues will produce good sense and realism in stereopsis to allow the elderly to experience presence within a virtual store. However, if the depth perception cues are poor, 3D displays, and especially stereoscopic displays, are not recommended; elderly users may lose interest in a 3D virtual store due to even more serious cybersickness than that experienced with a monocular display.