Abstract: The head mounted display (HMD) is widely used in virtual reality technology. In common HMD, however, the binocular disparity is set to an equal fixed value in the entire range of view. Such HMD systems have several shortcomings when used for wide views. In this study, in order to realize a natural stereo sensation of HMD with wide view, we measure the characteristics of binocular stereo perception and binocular light perception. Results show that both the stereoacuity and light sensitivity decrease as the retina’s eccentricity increases from fovea to periphery. However, the decrease of the stereoacuity is more rapid than that of the light sensitivity. These results suggest that the binocular disparity at the peripheral field should be small, otherwise double images would be observed instead of a stereo view. Based on the results we develop a relative binocular stereoacuity model which can be applied for the design of HMD systems with wide view.

Key words: binocular perception, peripheral vision, virtual reality, head mounted display with wide view