HMD Gaze-Driven Display Mode Switching for Motion Sickness Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Head Mounted Devices (HMDs) often cause motion sickness or vertigo due to inadequate computing capability to refresh images, especially when users need to quickly transition from virtual to real-world views, such as during interruptions like phone calls.
Innovation Solution
A method that tracks the user's gaze to fade out virtual world regions and transition to a see-through real-world view, allowing quick interaction with the real world while maintaining the virtual world outside the faded area, and vice versa, using gaze tracking and acclimatization processes to manage display transitions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the HMD refreshes images at high speed to provide immersive virtual world experience, then the virtual world immersion is improved, but motion sickness and vertigo occur when users need to quickly transition to real-world view
Solution Approach 1:
The display dynamically adjusts its mode between immersive mode (showing only virtual world) and transition mode (showing see-through real-world view) based on detected user events such as head movements or hand gestures. This dynamic switching allows the system to provide high-speed image refresh for immersion when needed while quickly transitioning to real-world view to prevent motion sickness, resolving the contradiction between immersion quality and user comfort during rapid transitions.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the HMD provides full immersive virtual world view, then the virtual experience quality is improved, but the user cannot quickly interact with the real world during interruptions
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically switches between immersive mode and transition mode based on detected user events. During normal operation, the display provides full immersive virtual world experience. When an interruption is detected (such as head movement or hand gesture), the system quickly transitions to transition mode that shows see-through real-world view, allowing users to interact with the real world while maintaining the ability to return to immersive experience, thus resolving the contradiction between virtual experience quality and real-world interaction speed.
3Speed
If the HMD transitions quickly from virtual to real-world view, then the response time to interruptions is improved, but the computing capability becomes inadequate to maintain both views
Solution Approach 1:
The display mode dynamically switches between immersive mode and transition mode based on detected events. In immersive mode, the system renders only the virtual world scene. Upon detecting an interruption event, the system transitions to transition mode that renders the see-through real-world view. This dynamic approach allows fast transition response while managing computing resources efficiently by rendering only the necessary view for the current state, resolving the contradiction between transition speed and computing capability requirements.
4Reliability
If the HMD maintains the virtual world scene during real-world view transition, then the virtual context is preserved, but the display complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The display dynamically adjusts its content based on the operational mode. In immersive mode, only the virtual world scene is displayed. When transitioning to handle interruptions, the system switches to transition mode where the see-through real-world view is displayed while maintaining the virtual world scene in the background. This dynamic mode switching preserves virtual context when needed while managing display complexity by clearly defining separate rendering paths for each mode, resolving the contradiction between context preservation and display complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
Methods, systems, and computer programs are presented for managing the display of images on a head mounted device (HMD). One method includes an operation for tracking the gaze of a user wearing the HMD, where the HMD is displaying a scene of a virtual world. In addition, the method includes an operation for detecting that the gaze of the user is fixed on a predetermined area for a predetermined amount of time. In response to the detecting, the method fades out a region of the display in the HMD, while maintaining the scene of the virtual world in an area of the display outside the region. Additionally, the method includes an operation for fading in a view of the real world in the region as if the HMD were transparent to the user while the user is looking through the region. The fading in of the view of the real world includes maintaining the scene of the virtual world outside the region.