BINOCULAR VISION IN A VIRTUAL WORLD - VISUAL DEFICITS FOLLOWING THE WEARING OF A HEAD-MOUNTED DISPLAY

The short-term effects on binocular stability of wearing a conventiona l head-mounted display (HMD) to explore a virtual reality environment were examined. Twenty adult subjects (aged 19-29 years) wore a commerc ially available HMD for 10 min while cycling around a computer generat ed 3-D world. The twin screen presentations were set to suit the avera ge interpupillary distance of our subject population, to mimic the con ditions of public access virtual reality systems. Subjects were examin ed before and after exposure to the HMD and there were clear signs of induced binocular stress for a number of the subjects. The implication s of introducing such HMDs into the workplace and entertainment enviro nments are discussed.