Display devices for virtual environments: impact on performance, workload, and simulator sickness

Authors:
J. Conradi;T. Alexander
Affiliations:
Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics, Wachtberg, Germany;Research Institute for Communication, Information Processing and Ergonomics, Wachtberg, Germany
Venue:
EGVE'08 Proceedings of the 14th Eurographics conference on Virtual Environments
Year:
2008

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Abstract

Usability and, thus, success of Virtual Environments (VE) systems are closely related to the type of display used. Applicable VE-displays range from simple desktop monitors with low immersion to high-end, immersive HMDs. It is often inferred that more sophisticated displays always produce higher performance. In this paper this opinion is critically questioned. To estimate effectiveness and usability of the display measures of human performance, subjective workload, and simulator sickness serve as critical criteria. The effect of three different displays (desktop monitor, projection wall, HMD) with varying degrees of immersion on each of the criteria was analyzed empirically. In the experiment n=30 participants performed an exploration task and memorized waypoints in a virtual village. The VE itself was created by integrating a commercial game engine as rendering system into our laboratory VE system. The results of the experiment showed no significant differences between displays for performance and simulator sickness. However, workload was rated lowest for desktop monitor and highest for HMD. Furthermore, the amount of simulator sickness decreased significantly between trial sessions. The results show that more immersive displays are not always the best choice per-se. The selection of display has to consider requirements of the application and user characteristics, especially training and VE-experience.