Immersive computer graphics systems strive to generate perceptually realistic user experiences. Current-generation virtual reality (VR) displays are successful in accurately rendering many perceptually important effects, including perspective, disparity, motion parallax, and other depth cues. In this article, we introduce ocular parallax rendering, a technology that accurately renders small amounts of gaze-contingent parallax capable of improving depth perception and realism in VR. Ocular parallax describes the small amounts of depth-dependent image shifts on the retina that are created as the eye rotates. The effect occurs because the centers of rotation and projection of the eye are not the same. We study the perceptual implications of ocular parallax rendering by designing and conducting a series of user experiments. Specifically, we estimate perceptual detection and discrimination thresholds for this effect and demonstrate that it is clearly visible in most VR applications. Additionally, we show that ocular parallax rendering provides an effective ordinal depth cue and it improves the impression of realistic depth in VR.

Streaming of 360° content is gaining attention as an immersive way to remotely experience live events. However live capture is presently limited to 2D content due to the prohibitive computational cost associated with multi-camera rigs. In this work we present a system that directly captures streaming 3D virtual reality content. Our approach does not suffer from spatial or temporal seams and natively handles phenomena that are challenging for existing systems, including refraction, reflection, transparency and speculars. Vortex natively captures in the omni-directional stereo (ODS) format, which is widely supported by VR displays and streaming pipelines. We identify an important source of distortion inherent to the ODS format, and demonstrate a simple means of correcting it. We include a detailed analysis of the design space, including tradeoffs between noise, frame rate, resolution, and hardware complexity. Processing is minimal, enabling live transmission of immersive, 3D, 360° content. We construct a prototype and demonstrate capture of 360° scenes at up to 8192 X 4096 pixels at 5 fps, and establish the viability of operation up to 32 fps.

Although emerging virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) systems can produce highly immersive experiences, they can also cause visual discomfort, eyestrain, and nausea. One of the sources of these symptoms is a mismatch between vergence and focus cues. In current VR/AR near-eye displays, a stereoscopic image pair drives the vergence state of the human visual system to arbitrary distances, but the accommodation, or focus, state of the eyes is optically driven towards a fixed distance. In this work, we introduce a new display technology, dubbed accommodation-invariant (AI) near-eye displays, to improve the consistency of depth cues in near-eye displays. Rather than producing correct focus cues, AI displays are optically engineered to produce visual stimuli that are invariant to the accommodation state of the eye. The accommodation system can then be driven by stereoscopic cues, and the mismatch between vergence and accommodation state of the eyes is significantly reduced. We validate the principle of operation of AI displays using a prototype display that allows for the accommodation state of users to be measured while they view visual stimuli using multiple different display modes.

Emerging virtual reality (VR) displays must overcome the prevalent issue of visual discomfort to provide high-quality and immersive user experiences. In particular, the mismatch between vergence and accommodation cues inherent to most stereoscopic displays has been a long standing challenge. In this paper, we evaluate several adaptive display modes afforded by focus-tunable optics or actuated displays that have the promise to mitigate visual discomfort caused by the vergence-accommodation conflict, and improve performance in VR environments. We also explore monovision as an unconventional mode that allows each eye of an observer to accommodate to a different distance. While this technique is common practice in ophthalmology, we are the first to report its effectiveness for VR applications with a custom built set up. We demonstrate that monovision and other focus-tunable display modes can provide better user experiences and improve user performance in terms of reaction times and accuracy, particularly for nearby simulated distances in VR.