Evaluation of the effect of viewing distance on visual fatigue in a home viewing environment

The authors report here the results of evaluation experiments designed to explore the effect of viewing distance on visual fatigue. Two kinds of visual content (normal content and content likely to cause visual fatigue) were used by means of physiological measurements of subject responses while viewing a 42-inch PDP display, followed by psychological evaluations in the form of post-experiment interviews. Both experiments showed that visual fatigue reached a minimum at a distance of 3 to 4 times the height of the display (3-4H; 165 cm-220 cm) and that sympathetic nerve activity peaked at around 3H. These results indicate that the ideal viewing distance for minimal visual fatigue and a closer feeling of involvement might be at around 3H.