Peripheral LOD

The eye is less sensitive to detail in the periphery of the visual field, suggesting that less level of detail (LOD) is needed in the periphery. In a series of studies, we find that peripheral detail reduction can be quite effective, even when the reduction is quite perceptable, and even during demanding search tasks that require heavy use of the periphery. We also find that eye tracking is not necessary if a 30 degree square high detail inset is centered in front of the head, using head-tracking only.

Project members: Ben Watson (NU), Larry Hodges (UNCC) & Neff Walker (UNICEF).

Publications

B.A. Watson, N. Walker, L.F. Hodges & A. Worden (1997). Managing level of detail through peripheral degradation: effects on search performance with a head-mounted display (pdf). ACMTrans. on Computer-Human Interaction, 4, 4, 323-346.

B.A. Watson, N. Walker, L.F. Hodges (1997). Managing level of detail through head-tracked peripheral degradation: a model and resulting design principles (pdf). Proceedings ACM VRST �97, Virtual Reality Software Technology (Lausanne, Switzerland, September), 59-64.

B.A. Watson, L.F. Hodges, N. Walker (1997). A model for managing level of detail with head-tracked peripheral degradation (pdf). Technical sketch, ACM SIGGRAPH 1997 Conference Visual Proceedings (Los Angeles, August), 183.

B.A. Watson, N. Walker, L.F. Hodges (1996). Effectiveness of spatial level of detail degradation in the periphery of head-mounted displays (pdf). ACM CHI 96 Conference Companion (Vancouver, April), 227- 228.

B.A. Watson, N. Walker & L.F. Hodges (1995). A user study evaluating level of detail degradation in the periphery of head-mounted displays (pdf). Proc. FIVE `95, Framework for Interactive Virtual Environments Conference (London, England, December), 203-212.

Imagery

	An early experimental view Participants sought a specific letter or number among distractors in a 3D head-tracked environment, with coarse detail in the periphery of a large field of view display.
	A later experimental view Placement times rise as frame rates drop; more steeply if placement difficulty is increased. Previewing allows more reliable performance as frame rates drop and difficulty increases.