Impact of disparity error on user experience of interacting with stereoscopic 3D video content

The stereoscopic three-dimensional (3D) displays can offer immersive experience to the audience by artificially stimulating binocular stereopsis in the human visual system. The binocular disparity between the left and right view is the key factor in creating the impression of depth, distinguishing the stereo 3D video from other types of video paradigms. Taking into consideration of the imperfections of current disparity estimation algorithms, this paper focus on the impact of disparity error on the user experience of pointing and selecting stereo 3D content. The conducted user study into perception tolerance suggests that users can tolerate disparity errors to a certain degree, where the level of tolerance varies with perceived distance from the screen. In addition, the study demonstrates that for a typical interaction task, reduction of accuracy is proportional to the disparity level of targeted 3D objects.