Role of motion and sound in use of head-mounted displays

Matt Thompson, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland

Abstract
Head-mounted displays (HMDs) are increasingly used in industrial, medical and military contexts to support mobile work (Laramee & Ware, 2002). Two important issues are (1) how best to provide multimodal support for HMD-mediated activities involving systems that do not have inherently spatial properties and (2) whether common fate of objects displayed on an HMD exacerbates a tendency for unexpected events in the outer field of view to be missed. In the first case we investigate whether auditory support for performing a task with an HMD differs in effectiveness when the auditory support is delivered proximally via an ipsilateral earpiece vs. distally via free field sound. The answer to this question is needed to deliver sonification support for patient monitoring or in share trading applications (Watson & Sanderson, 2004; Barrass & Kramer, 1999). In the second case we investigate the role of HMD motion on whether unexpected events in the outer field of view are missed. We compare participants’ ability to detect unexpected events when the head is stationary vs. when the head is in motion so that HMD display objects have strong common fate (Sturzel & Spillman, 2004). Results will inform the design and use of HMDs in real-world contexts.

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