Measuring dynamic visual acuity to examine visual performance in observing moving objects with a head-mounted display

A head-mounted display (HMD) delivers a virtual reality (VR) environment that allows an immersive experience. An understanding of visual performance with an HMD can improve visualization quality in VR applications. In this study, we designed visual performance tasks and recruited 36 participants to examine their dynamic visual acuity (DVA) when observing moving objects with an HMD. The results indicated that poorer visual acuity (higher DVA scores) was observed as the optotype speed increased from 20°/s to 80°/s. Particularly, participants had better DVA when they observed objects moving at a low speed (20°/s) than when they observed static objects. The corrected vision and sex difference made little difference (p > 0.05) in DVA scores. Furthermore, we found a significant speed-suppressing effect on identifying a moving object when it was smaller than a specific size. We also found an anisotropy effect in capturing objects when moving in the horizontal or vertical direction. Questionnaire results indicate that the experience of identifying objects in the IVE was highly consistent with that in the real world. These findings provide useful guidelines for graphic design in HMD-based VR applications.