Depth perception in shuffleboard: Depth cues effect on depth perception in virtual and augmented reality system

The virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications have been widely used in a variety of fields; one of the key requirements in a VR or AR system is to understand how users perceive depth in the virtual environment and AR. Three different graphics depth cues are designed in shuffleboard to explore what kind of graphics depth cues are beneficial for depth perception. We also conduct a depth-matching experiment to compare performance in VR and AR systems using an optical see-through head-mounted display (HMD). The result shows that the absolute error increases as the distance becomes farther. Analysis from the inverse of distance shows that box depth cues have a significant effect on depth perception, while the points depth cues and line depth cues have no significant effect. The error in diopter in AR experiment is lower than that in VR experiment. Participants in the AR experiment under medium illuminance condition have less error than those under low and high illuminance conditions. Men have less error than women in certain display conditions, but the advantage disappears when there is a strong depth cue. Besides, there is no significant effect of completion time on depth perception.