True Three-Dimensional Displays that Allow Viewers to Dynamically Shift Accommodation, Bringing Objects Displayed at Different Viewing Distances Into and Out of Focus

Under natural viewing conditions, viewers do not just passively perceive. Instead, they dynamically scan the visual scene by shifting their eye fixation and focus between objects at different viewing distances. In doing so, the oculomotor processes of accommodation (eye focus) and vergence (angle between lines of sight of two eyes) must be shifted synchronously to place new objects in sharp focus in the center of each retina. Accordingly, nature has reflexively linked accommodation and vergence, such that a change in one process automatically drives a matching change in the other. Conventional stereoscopic displays force viewers to try to decouple these processes, because while they must dynamically vary vergence angle to view objects at different stereoscopic distances, they must keep accommodation at a fixed distance--or else the entire display will slip out of focus. This decoupling generates eye fatigue and compromises image quality when viewing such displays. In an effort to solve this accommodation/vergence mismatch problem, we have built various prototype displays that can vary the focus of objects at different distances in a displayed scene to match vergence and stereoscopic retinal disparity demands and better simulate natural viewing conditions. By adjusting the focus of individual objects in a scene to match their stereoscopic retinal disparity, the cues to ocular accommodation and vergence are brought into agreement. As in natural vision, the viewer brings different objects into focus by shifting accommodation. As the mismatch between accommodation and vergence is decreased, natural viewing conditions are better simulated and eye fatigue should decrease.