Comfort and realism - key factors of the overall quality of stereoscopic 3D content (the results of a subjective experiment)
Résumé
Most of the research into evaluating the perception of stereoscopic 3D images tries to draw conclusions on the overall 3D quality only by analyzing the 2D quality and the depth. But experiments show that the viewing comfort and the naturalness of the scene are two other significant factors that define the 3D experience. We implemented a psycho-visual experiment in which we explored the way these two subjective factors are perceived. We recorded the oral observations made by 26 users while watching 24 stereoscopic images displayed on a 3D screen in identical conditions. Key words were extracted from the recordings and subsequently analyzed. Our results show a very different perception of comfort among participants while watching the same images. Two hypotheses were envisaged. The first and most probable is that the degree of subjectivity due to the vision characteristics and to the background of the participants is more consistent that believed. The second hypothesis is that these large differences could be due to a slight unavoidable imprecision of a test of this type. The results also revealed the presence of the cardboard effect artifact in our images and a direct influence of this artifact on the naturalness perceived was observed.