Construction of a Mixed Reality Environment for Evaluating an Illusory Sense of Linear Acceleration Based on Vergence Eye Movement

Abstract

We describe a mixed reality (MR) environment for testing a novel index of an illusory sense of linear acceleration. The index is based on a measurement of the user's vergence eye movement, which is defined as the simultaneous and collaborative movement of both eyes. For evaluating the illusory sense of linear acceleration, we developed an MR environment consisting of a large hemisphere display and a motion chair, and we conducted eye-movement measurements. In this experiment, subjects sat on a motion chair and were instructed to look around the center of a display. We considered four conditions in a 2 × 2 factorial design with the factors of video motion and chair motion. The video was recorded out of doors by using a car, and the chair was either tilted or not tilted. We observed the significantly faster eye convergence when the video was played (not static) and when the chair was tilted, providing support for the usability of our MR environment.