Designing a VR user experience test regarding the Vergence-Accommodation Conflict : An investigation surrounding the relations to Depth Perception

Abstract: This bachelor project investigates how to design a virtual reality (VR) user experience test to analyze the effect that the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) has on a users ability to judge focus. Furthermore, we want to investigate how the amount of depth cues can affect a user's perception of this conflict in VR. A user experience test has been designed through an iterative process where the prototype has gone through smaller user tests between each iteration. We validate the design through testing a larger number of participants, where we gather subjective data through the use of the “Think Aloud Method” as well as data based on the user's interactions within the test environment. Analyzed results show that the absence of depth cues makes it significantly harder for users to judge depth and focus, and that the presence of an additional reference-object in many cases is enough to assist users with this issue. Furthermore, we notice better user performance at closer distances. The aim of this investigation is to provide more information surrounding the perception of VAC, as it is one of the few issues within the VR industry that prevents us from experiencing depth in virtual worlds in a more realistic way.