Title: Positioning of a Monocular Head Word Display in the Temporal Hemifield.

Malcolm G. Haynes
Computer Science Ph.D. Candidate
School of Interactive Computing
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology

Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2016
Time: 9:30 AM – 11:30 AM
Location: Tech Square Research Building (TSRB) 223

Committee:
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Dr. Thad Starner (Advisor, School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech)
Dr. Gregory Abowd (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech)
Dr. Rosa Arriaga (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech)
Dr. Keith Edwards (School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech)
Dr. Eli Peli (School of Medicine, Harvard University)

Abstract:
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Head worn displays (HWDs) such as Google Glass are becoming more common. However, the optimal location for the display of such devices is an open question. Existing devices have displays in different locations. For example, some are located above the line of sight, others below the line of sight, and yet more are centered in the line of sight. In addition to vertical displacement, an HWD can be displaced horizontally. In fact, several studies point to potential advantages of horizontal displacement. Yet, little research has examined the effects of horizontally displacing an HWD.

This proposal evaluates temporal (i.e., towards the temple) displacement of a monocular HWD across a representative set of activities for which a monocular HWD may be used. The selected activities include situations where interacting with the HWD is the primary or sole task, situations where attention is shifted back and forth between the HWD and the real world, and social situations where overtly interacting with the HWD may be awkward. Specifically, this thesis conducts four studies. The first two examine effects of temporal displacement on a long duration reading task. The third considers effects of temporal displacement on a common industrial task, order picking. The final study inspects the effect of eccentric gaze shifting on perception during a one-on-one conversation. In conducting the aforementioned studies, this thesis attempts to provide a comprehensive evaluation of how temporal displacement of a monocular HWD effects performance and perception.

The general hypothesis proposed is that displacing a monocular head worn display more than 15 degrees will negatively effect performance on tasks in the physical and virtual domains as well as user preference.