Comparison of gaze accuracy and precision in real-world and virtual reality

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) is popular across many fields and is increasingly used in sports as a training tool. The reason, therefore, is recently improved display technologies, more powerful computation capacity, and lower costs of head-mounted displays for VR. As in the real-world (R), visual effects are the most important stimulus provided by VR. However, it has not been demonstrated whether the gaze behavior would achieve the same level in VR as in R. This information will be important for the development of applications or software in VR. Therefore, several tasks were designed to analyze the gaze accuracy and gaze precision using eye-tracking devices in R and VR. 21 participants conducted three eye-movement tasks in sequence: gaze at static targets, tracking a moving target, and gaze at targets at different distances. To analyze the data, an averaged distance with root mean square was calculated between the coordinates of each target and the recorded gaze points for each task. In gaze accuracy, the results showed no significant differences between R and VR in gaze at static targets (1 m distance, p > 0.05) and small significant differences at targets placed at different distances (p < 0.05), as well as large differences in tracking the moving target (p < 0.05). The precision in VR is significantly worse compared to R in all tasks with static gaze targets (p < 0.05). On the whole, this study gives a first insight into comparing foveal vision, especially gaze accuracy and precision between R and VR, and can, therefore, serve as a reference for the development of VR applications in the future.

Reflexive Saccades Used for Objective and Automated Measurements of Contrast Sensitivity in Selected Areas of Visual Field

“… 5 for optokinetic nystagmus-based CS examinations. Although there are some considerable technical limitations, as for instance the eye-tracking latency 43 or its quality, 44 the VR headsets provide a bigger field of view for possible testing of larger eccentricities, 45 compared to our setup. Testing further eccentricities would be useful in the early detection of several eye diseases such as glaucoma.…”

Perception and Action under Different Stimulus Presentations: A Review of Eye-Tracking Studies with an Extended View on Possibilities of Virtual Reality

“…The visual input predominates VR application compared to the acoustic and haptic information [38]. Integrating further measurement systems such as the eye tracker [39] or the EEG [40] offers new possibilities to get a more in-depth insight into visual information processing. For this purpose, mobile eye trackers were integrated into various existing VR devices such as HMD's or the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE).…”

“…However, this application requires a complex technical implementation. For this reason, some authors carried out studies to measure the accuracy and precision of the point of view made in the VR compared with those from the natural environment [39]. The results show no significant differences between the two forms of presentation mentioned and that the VR setting can be used to investigate gaze behavior in sport.…”

“…The results of the reviewed studies reveal many reasons for using VR in gaze behavior studies: (a) There are significant differences in gaze behavior between 2-D or video screen projection and in situ representation [8,14,25,28,29] and also between the different perspectives of the presentation [30,31]; (b) In the current literature, no significant differences between the in situ representation and the representation of the scenes in VR or 3-D are reported ( [36]; Q4); (c) On the VR display, scenes and stimuli can be shown that cannot be shown in reality or that cannot be shown in a standardized manner ( [37,50]; and (d) In addition to the VR presentation, supplementary examination methods that require a stationary or safe workplace can be used (eye-tracking: [39]; EEG: [40]).…”

Influence of body visualization in VR during the execution of motoric tasks in different age groups

“…That could affect action characteristics in VR compared to RW and impair transfer in the real world. Otherwise, previously conducted studies showed minor differences between the visual perception in RW and VR, e.g., in eye-tracking [ 11 ], spatial orientation [ 12 – 14 ], as well as analyses of balance, grasping, and throwing performance accompanied with different body visualization types [ 15 ]. Those rare differences conclude that VR is suitable for training applications and sports science research.…”