3-D@Home Human Factors Activities and Focus
September 22, 2011, 3-D User Experience Technical Summit, Hollywood–Philip Corriveau from Intel and the Chair of the 3D@Home ST5 human factors committee provided updates on 3D@Home activities.
To put the activities into perspective, he showed the organization\’s structure and inter-relationship between the various steering teams. They have noted that the user experience is impacted by all facets of 3-D, so they exchange information with the content creation team- ST1, storage, transmission and distribution- ST2, education, communication and promotion- ST3, consumer products- ST4, and mobile 3-D- ST6. The separate parts of the industry need to share the technical results to provide the best experience for all possible viewers.
Key accomplishments and activities for the past year included a human factors symposium in December, the signing of a memo of understanding with the American Optometry Association, and a working agreement with Pacific University on 3-D vision issues. In addition, they have hosted a number of mini-conferences and symposia around the world, including SMPTE, NAB and the China 3-D World Forum.
They have completed a literature search with assistance from a PhD intern provided by Intel, launched a 3-D study program, engaged Chris Haws as a consultant with funds approved for seed research program, provided support for 3D in the classroom guidelines in conjunction with the AOA, and started a major involvement of 3D@Home, Intel, THX and others to lay out a new Stereo Vision Clinic in Hillsboro, Oregon with Pacific University.
The Pacific Eyecare Clinic, the first clinic of its kind, is dedicated to measuring and publishing stereo capability in the general public. The new clinic specializes in diagnosing and managing the eye and health-related aspects of compromised binocular (or 3D) vision. In addition, the clinic will test binocular and stereopsis vision for children and adults, develop new tests, and circulate this information back to 3D equipment manufacturers to better understand the human response to 3D products. The clinic will be run by the Vision Performance Institute at Pacific University and is located in Beaverton, Oregon.
The organization has developed a 3D testing matrix built from 6 categories filled out with all possible options for 3D testing purposes in both subjective and technical areas. The purpose is to distribute the test matrix to groups, institutions, etc. for use in their own studies. Use of the super matrix may require some type of licensing agreement, a possible fee, etc.
A 3-D subjective study condenses all options within the 6 categories to focus solely on areas that have the biggest market share (in terms of hardware) and most typical user settings and types of individuals, to come up with a focused test matrix for a 3D@Home conducted “Subjective” study. The purpose is to distribute results to content producers and content owners in the home entertainment industry, so better content for the home is created. The goal is to give non-technical results to non-technical groups about what should and shouldn’t be done in order to engage viewers and not harm them. Test subjects will be given a questionnaire to answer (multiple choice and write-in). The test matrix categories include: content type, individual types/differences, testing times, hardware types, testing scenarios, and testing environment.
The industry needs more long term studies and a wider range of test subjects. To date, most test subjects have been from relatively small subsets of the general population, so the work at the Vision Performance Institute and other areas will be particularly useful, since they are looking to work with the general population. The initial testing will be on accommodation and vergence issues in children. It will then be expanded to the general population.
