Digital Eye Strain in Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays : Properties, Causes, Solutions, and Perspective
| dc.contributor.advisor | Rukzio, Enrico | |
| dc.contributor.author | Hirzle, Teresa | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-09T22:10:22Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-09T22:10:22Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description.abstract | Advancements in display and sensor technology have led to virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) progressing from devices mainly used for research purposes to everyday end user technology. The devices are used in a broad range of application areas, particularly for training and educational purposes. Such applications leverage the advantage of the devices of being able to create ecologically valid environments allowing us to study human behavior in a controlled, safe, and realistic way. Furthermore, consumer users are increasingly adopting the devices, anticipating their potential to become an integral part of our everyday device repertoire. However, current VR HMDs expose users to digital eye strain (DES) - a rapidly spreading health problem in today's digital society. DES collectively refers to eye and vision problems caused by prolonged exposure to digital screens. Its non-specific symptoms, such as dry eyes, eye ache, or blurred vision, affect the users' overall quality of life and general well-being. While a large body of work exists on DES in conventional displays, the problem has only marginally been addressed in the context and development of VR HMDs - despite them carrying inherent properties that make them particularly prone (e.g., coverage of large parts of the field of view, close distance to the eyes). Besides such technical factors, the context of use inherently increases the problem, as the goal of VR experiences is usually to immerse the users in the virtual environment, which may lead to prolonged and extended exposures. This dissertation lays the foundation for researching DES in VR HMDs by analyzing properties, causes, and solutions to the problem and setting it into context with other types of discomfort occurring in VR HMDs. To that end, it applies two complementary views allowing it to analyze the problem from a user-driven and a technology-driven perspective. The thesis is structured into four parts. First, it provides an analysis of the properties of the two views user and VR HMD, which are the main stakeholders in the interactive system of interest. It explores the interaction possibilities between the two using a morphological analysis, the results of which are presented as a two-dimensional design space. In a second step, the thesis presents a literature survey on the user-driven and technology-driven causes of DES that are currently present in the human-computer interaction literature. The survey results reveal a lack of user-driven solutions. Building on these results, in the third part, two solutions to alleviate DES symptoms are developed and empirically evaluated. One solution consists of short visual tasks that have to be performed actively by the users (user-driven eye exercises) and one that can passively be integrated into device use (technology-driven blue light filtering). The two solutions are evaluated in three quantitative user studies (N=28, N=24, and N=19), revealing that the user-driven solution (eye exercises) is successful in reducing symptoms, while the technology-driven solution (blue light filtering) did not have a reducing effect on symptoms. In the fourth and final part of the thesis, the problem of DES is set into perspective with two other important types of discomfort occurring in VR HMDs (simulator sickness and ergonomic symptoms). The relationship between the three symptom types and their individual contribution to general discomfort is formalized with an exploratory factor analysis. Then, the severity of the three symptom categories is compared in a user study (N=352), revealing that DES and ergonomic symptoms are more prevalent and severe than the currently dominantly researched problem of simulator sickness. The dissertation concludes with a number of overreaching findings: (1) The interaction on VR HMDs carries unique properties that promote the occurrence of DES symptoms. (2) The search for causes has currently dominantly focused on technology-driven causes, and user-driven solutions are rare. (3) The problem of DES is prevalent and severe in the users of VR HMDs but is currently not sufficiently addressed neither by VR HMD experience developers nor by the research community. (4) Solutions should be designed in a way that they can be integrated into device use; one example for such a solution are short visual tasks can be employed to reduce symptoms. (5) There are external factors, such as users' susceptibility or sex, that further drive the experience of DES symptoms. (6) In addition to these main insights into DES in VR HMDs, this dissertation provides an analysis of general discomfort, consisting of at least three main factors (DES, simulator sickness, and ergonomic symptoms) and provides an extended factor structure that can be used to build a more timely and comprehensive discomfort measure for VR HMDs. These findings implicate the importance of DES for future research and highlight that our understanding of discomfort should proceed with the technology. | en |
| dc.description.uri | https://oparu.uni-ulm.de/items/ad571b4d-6fe8-4586-8d0f-8284559b8e5c | en |
| dc.identifier.doi | 10.18725/OPARU-47061 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://dl.gi.de/handle/20.500.12116/45565 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.pubPlace | Ulm | |
| dc.publisher | Universität Ulm | |
| dc.relation.ispartofseries | Dissertationen Universität Ulm | |
| dc.subject | Digital eye strain | |
| dc.subject | Virtuelle Realität | |
| dc.subject | Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation | |
| dc.subject | Technologie | |
| dc.subject | Virtual reality | |
| dc.subject | Human-computer interaction | |
| dc.subject | Technology | |
| dc.title | Digital Eye Strain in Virtual Reality Head-Mounted Displays : Properties, Causes, Solutions, and Perspective | en |
| dc.type | Text/Dissertation |