Susceptibility to Visual Discomfort of 3-D Displays by Visual Performance Measures

People with some signs of binocular dysfunctioning can be susceptible to visual complaints associated with viewing stereoscopic content at large viewing distances. Two performance measurements enabled to distinguish people by their binocular status (BS) in previous research: the ratio of performance of the Wilkins rate of reading test (WRRT) between 2-D and 3-D, and the vergence facility. In an experiment, first, an extensive optometric screening was carried out to differentiate visually asymptomatic young adults with good BS (GBS) (N= 27) from those with a moderate BS (MBS) (N= 6). Second, participants had to perform the WRRT at short viewing distance followed by a questionnaire under different screen disparity settings. The results reveal that the ratio of the WRRT between 0 and -1.5 screen disparity is an appropriate indicator of participants with MBS in comparison with participants with GBS. In addition, the results show that 0.75°of screen disparity is already problematic for people with MBS. We conclude that the WRRT-ratio has potential as a BS test in consumer applications to provide individual settings for comfortable screen disparities based on viewers' BS.