Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Are Existing Head-Mounted Displays ‘Good Enough’?

During the spring of 2007, Sensics, my company, conducted a broad worldwide survey amongst academic, commercial, and government users of virtual reality systems. The survey was designed to understand user perceptions of current head-mounted display (HMD)
technology as well as desired performance characteristics of what was termed a 'good enough'
HMD.

Key survey findings include:

1. Most existing HMDs are not ‘good enough’ according to survey participants. Commonplace horizontal field of view (50 degrees or lower) and commonplace vertical field of view (30 degrees or lower) are considered ‘good enough’ by fewer than 10% of surveyed population.

2. The lack of ‘good enough’ performance is cited in practically all the cases where buyers with appropriate budgets considered purchasing head-mounted displays yet ultimately did not do so.

3. Users consider the most important HMD attributes to be: panoramic field of view (over 100 degrees horizontal), large vertical field of view (over 50 degrees), very fast dynamic response (no smear or fade effects), high contrast display, high resolution display and a lightweight design.

A full copy of the survey can be obtained by contacting Sensics. I think it's well worth a read.

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