In this paper, authors systematically selected and reviewed articles related to stereoscopic displays and their advances, with a special focus on perception, interaction, and corresponding challenges. The aim was to understand interaction‐related problems, provide possible explanations, and identify factors that limit their applications. Despite promising advancements, there are still issues that researchers in the field fail to explain precisely. The two major problems in stereoscopic viewing are, compared with the real world, objects are perceived to be smaller than they actually are and there are discomfort and visual syndromes. Furthermore, there is general agreement that humans underestimate their egocentric distance in a virtual environment (VE). Our analysis revealed that in the real world, distance estimation is about 94% accurate, but in VE, it is only about 80% accurate. This problem could reduce the efficacy of different sensory motor‐based applications where interaction is important. Experts from human factors, computing, psychology, and others have studied contributing factors such as types of perception/response method, quality of graphics, associated stereoscopic conditions, experience in virtual reality (VR), and distance signals. This paper discusses the factors requiring further investigation if the VR interaction is to be seamlessly realized. In addition, engineering research directions aiming at improving current interaction performances are recommended.

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Stereoscopic displays have a promising future because of recent advancements and popularity of handheld devices and maturing head mounted displays. Gesture interaction such as pointing, selection, pinching, and manipulation are now possible in the current virtual environments, where accurate distance judgment is required. In this paper, we address the perception of exocentric distance in stereoscopic displays under two target orientations: horizontal and vertical. Three parallax conditions (on screen, 5 cm from screen, and 10 cm from screen) were considered, where the screen was fixed at a distance of 100 cm from the observer. Four levels of center‐to‐center distance between 10 and 50 cm were employed. The perceptual matching task revealed underestimation in all conditions. The overall judgment of exocentric distance was only about 80% of the actual. We also found a main effect of distance and interaction between layout and distance to be significant. The two important findings of this study are that underestimation of exocentric distance increases as the separation between virtual targets increases and that in vertical orientation, accuracy increases with closer targets. However, the main effects of layout and parallax on accuracy of judgment were not significant. Engineering implications of the results are also discussed in this paper.

An experiment was conducted to investigate the accuracy of distance judgment in a frontal plane of projection‐based stereoscopic environments. The targets were presented at nine distinct frontal plane positions and at three depth levels. Eighteen right‐handed participants with self‐declared normal visual acuity reached the target, either continuously visible or presented briefly, by holding pointing sticks. All combinations of the experimental conditions were repeated for an equivalent real‐world environment. Accuracies of judgments were then computed from three‐dimensional data collected by a motion system composed of six infrared cameras. As compared with about 94% accuracy in the physical world, the space in the frontal plane was only about 85% on the stereoscopic environment. The result also revealed more accurate judgment in the continuous presence of the target. Furthermore, the accuracy was affected by the egocentric distance of the frontal plane from the position of the participant. The study concluded that the compression in the frontal plane and underestimation of depth, which has been reported by the majority of previous studies could be an indication that the space compression in virtual environments might be in all the three‐dimensions. These findings can be used as guidelines for developers and content designers to properly locate virtual targets and selection of efficient interaction modes.