IIS/HCI: Collaborative Research: Development and Assessment of Head-Mounted Fovea-Contingent Display Technology

虽然头戴式显示器（HMD）技术已经取得了重大的发展，其在3D可视化方面的功能优势已经得到了认可，但它们在能力方面存在权衡和限制，这对可视化精度、用户性能和用户安全性产生了重大影响。这些问题中最主要的是对眼球运动的无知。大多数最先进的头戴式显示器使用头部姿势来近似视线，这可能会导致用户想要看到的东西和他们实际看到的东西之间存在显著差异。将眼动追踪功能集成到头戴式显示器中，将显著改善显示质量和用户界面。在这个项目中，pi将从底层光学配置优化hmd -眼动仪集成的概念设计；pi期望通过这种方式实现比集成现成的商用显示器和眼动仪更紧凑、舒适、易于使用和可靠的系统。pi将制定一套全面的方法，以校准和定量评估测试平台，并量化在HMD中具有或不具有眼动追踪功能的虚拟物体的渲染和感知深度/尺寸表示；因此，pi期望确定集成是否可以显着提高眼动追踪精度和显示质量的性能，因为它涉及增强环境中真实和虚拟物体注册的准确性和精度。最后，将进行两项试验性研究。其中第一个将探索一种独特的中央凹随机显示方案的概念，该方案利用光子技术在凝视点定位高分辨率插入，创新地没有移动部件，以解决传统hmd中存在的视野和分辨率之间的权衡。第二项试点研究将调查远程协作环境中的“通过观看指向”视觉界面，在这种环境中，参与者的注意力焦点跟随远程合作者的关注点，反之亦然。更广泛的影响：这项研究不仅将提高显示质量和用户界面，但最重要的是，它将推动增强现实技术的新的和令人兴奋的应用。特别是，新的hdm眼动追踪技术将为信息检索带来新的交互界面，将为人为因素和视觉研究提供更精确的眼动监测，将支持改进虚拟环境中的行为评估，并将为某些类型的残疾人提供新的交互和交流方法。基础光学科学与工程，计算机图形学，人为因素，以及建立测试平台的实践经验的结合，将成为研究生和本科生参与的一个优秀的跨学科训练基地。

While head-mounted display (HMD) technologies have undergone significant developments and their functional benefits for 3D visualization have been recognized, they have suffered from tradeoffs and limitations in capability, which impose critical affects on visualization accuracy, user performance, and user safety. Chief among these problems is an ignorance of eye movement. Most state-of-the-art HMDs use head pose to approximate line-of-sight, which may cause a significant disparity between what users are intended to look at and what they actually see. The integration of eye tracking capability into HMDs would significantly improve display quality and user interface. In this project, the PIs will optimize the conceptual design of HMD-eye tracker integration from low-level optical configurations; the PIs expect to achieve by this means a more compact, comfortable, easy-to-use, and dependable system than would result from integration of off-the-shelf commercially available displays and eye trackers. The PIs will set up a comprehensive methodology to calibrate and quantitatively assess the testbed, and to quantify rendered and perceived depth/size representations of virtual objects with and without eye tracking capability in the HMD; the PIs expect thereby to determine whether integration can significantly improve the performance of both eye tracking accuracy and display quality as it relates to accuracy and precision of registration of real and virtual objects in augmented environments. Finally, two pilot studies will be pursued. The first of these will explore the concept of a unique fovea-contingent display scheme which utilizes photonics technology to position a high resolution inset at the gaze point, innovatively with no moving parts, in order to address the trade-off between field of view and resolution existing in conventional HMDs. The second pilot study will investigate a "pointing by looking" visual interface in remote collaborative environments in which the focus of attention of a participant follows the point-of-regard of a remote collaborator, or vice versa.Broader Impacts: This research will not only advance display quality and the user interface, but most importantly it will drive new and thrilling applications of augmented reality technology. In particular, the new HDM-eye tracker technology will lead to novel interactive interfaces for information retrieval, will provide more accurate eye-movement monitoring for human factors and vision research, will support improved assessment of behavior in virtual environments, and will afford new methods of interaction and communication for people with certain types of disabilities. The mixture of basic optical science and engineering, computer graphics, human factors, and hands-on experience with building a testbed will be an excellent interdisciplinary training ground for the graduate and undergraduate students involved.