Effects of stereoscopic and rotational displays in a three-dimensional path-tracing task

A series of three experiments investigated the effectiveness of stereoscopic and rotational display techniques for the purpose of establishing human factors guidelines for the design of three-dimensional (3D) displays. In the described experiments, depth perception was evaluated by examining accuracy in a 3D path-tracing task, with stimulus displays resembling the structure of cerebral angiograms. The first experiment allowed subjects to control rotation in dynamic displays. The results indicated that performance improved using either technique relative to viewing two-dimensional (2D) displays. However, rotational displays were superior to stereoscopic displays, and performance was best when both techniques were combined. The second experiment compared subject-controlled rotation with observation of continuously rotating displays at different rates of rotation. Performance declined at faster rotation rates; however, there were no advantages of subject-controlled rotation. In the third experiment, performance in rotational displays was no better than that in stereoscopic displays enhanced with multiple static viewing angles. However, performance was always best when both 3D techniques were jointly implemented. The results are discussed in terms of the visual information available using either 3D display technique and are related to the weighted additive model of depth perception.