1. Introduction
Three-dimensional TVs have been commercialized in recent years. The objective of this commercialization is to replicate the experience achievable in 3D cinematic presentations in a more intimate home setting [
1]. 3D TVs are affordable, aesthetically pleasing, and can provide users with a sense of presence [
2]; therefore, the commercialization has been accompanied by the increasing availability of 3D TVs broadcast channels or even 3D home cinema [
3]. Engineers and academicians are continually engaged in the assessment of 3D TV, aiming to maximize the image quality while also minimizing the side effects [
4,
5,
6]. To fully optimize 3D TVs, it is necessary to gain a better understanding of the impact of 3D TVs on the Human Visual System (HVS) [
3].
Three-dimensional TVs generate 3D images by creating depth. Depth, also widely known as parallax in 3D stereoscopic display [
7,
8], was defined as the binocular disparity in the human visual system that gives a 3D stereoscopic effect of depth with each eye receiving a similar image, but not identical, to that of a real spatial vision by horizontal disparity [
9]. The user can experience the depth of 3D TVs by wearing 3D glasses [
10]. Ideally, 3D TVs should be able to detect 3D glasses positions and change the depth immediately so the users can perceive the image comfortably [
3].
One common device to evaluate the depth perception in the stereoscopic display is an eye tracker [
2,
7]. It has been extensively used to collect and analyze HVS in the stereoscopic display [
11]. Eye trackers are able to capture the eye movement, which provides evidence of visual attention as a fundamental system in visual perception [
12]. Eye trackers have been widely used in many research disciplines, such as measuring cognitive load during the driving task [
13], assembly task [
14], software screen complexity [
15], and even military camouflage [
16]. In the context of 3D interface design, an eye tracker has the potential to improve many existing 3D interaction techniques [
2].
Despite the numerous papers related to 3D TVs in recent years, very limited research has investigated the effect of 3D TV environments on eye movement and motor performance. Most studies which utilized 3D TVs mostly only investigated the subjective assessment of visual discomfort. Read et al. [
17] investigated the changes in vision, balance, and coordination associated with normal home 3D TVs viewing in the 2 months after first acquiring a 3D TV. Read [
18] also investigated the subjective experience in-home 3D TVs over 8 weeks by using symptoms questionnaire, while Lambooij et al. [
19] investigated the three different assessments for visual discomfort: (1) single assessment score for each stimulus sequence, (2) continuous assessment, and (3) retrospective assessment for the entire test. Similarly, Lee et al. [
20] investigated the effect of stimulus width on visual discomfort by measuring visual discomfort and binocular fusion time, while Chang et al. [
21] and Chang et al. [
22] only examined the physical properties of 3D glasses. Furthermore, a more recent study by Zang et al. [
23] compared the difference in visual comfort between 3D TVs and VR glasses. Finally, Urvoy et al. [
24] proposed a comprehensive review of visual fatigue and discomfort based on physiological and psychological processes enabling depth perception.
Some of the most recent studies related to 3D TVs generally incorporated physiological responses of the human while watching the stimuli on a 3D TV. For instance, Chen et al. [
25] investigated the effect of 3D TVs on human brain activity. In addition, Manshouri et al. [
26] and Chen et al. [
27] utilized EEG to investigate the effect of 3D TVs on brain waves. However, the effects of the 3D TVs on eye movements and motor performance are still clearly underexplored. Generally, poor visual and motor performances may have an impact to consumer acceptance of 3D TV. A further in-depth investigation of eye movement and motor performance are needed to enhance the performance in 3D TV.
Our previous studies investigated the effect of parallax on eye movement parameters in the projection-based stereoscopic display [
8,
28,
29,
30]. Eye movement parameters which consisted of eye movement time, fixation duration, time to first fixation, number of fixations, and eye gaze accuracy were evaluated under three different levels of depth. The results revealed that depth had significant effects on all eye movement parameters in projection-based stereoscopic displays [
28,
29]. The participants were found to have longer eye movement time, longer fixation duration, longer time to first fixation, larger number of fixations, and less eye gaze accuracy when the target was projected at 50 cm in front of the screen compared to projected at 20 cm in front of the screen or projected at the screen [
28].
The purpose of this study was mainly intended to investigate the effects of 3D TV environments on eye movement and motor performance. Using a similar approach to our previous studies [
8,
28,
29,
31,
32,
33], we utilized an eye tracker to explore a comprehensive analysis regarding the effect of 3D TVs on selected eye movement parameters and motor performance. We also discussed the effect of depth and index of difficulty, since both variables could influence eye movement and motor performance in a stereoscopic environment [
34]. This study is one of the first studies that investigated the effect of 3D TVs on eye movement and motor performance simultaneously. The findings of this study could lead to better understanding of the visual and motor performance for 3D TVs.
4. Discussion
4.1. The Effect of Environment (3D TV)
The result of a repeated measures ANOVA revealed that environment had significant effects on eye movement time, index of eye performance, time to first fixation, saccade duration, revisited fixation duration, eye gaze accuracy, hand movement time, and index of hand performance. However, there were no significant main effects of environment on number of fixations and error rate. Participants were found to have longer eye movement time, lower index of eye performance, longer time to first fixation, longer saccade duration, longer revisited fixation duration, lower eye gaze accuracy, longer hand movement time, and lower index of hand performance when the target was presented in a 3D environment.
Theoretically, eye movement should be faster than hand movement. Participants assured the position of the target until they decided to move their hand to click the target. Eyes will guide the hand to click target when the eyes fixate on the position of the target [
40]. In this study, participants required a longer time to click the virtual target in the 3D environment compared with the target in the 2D environment. It appears that in the 2D environment, participants perceived the target clearly without any difficulty and confusion, and therefore, the participants could determine the target in screen displays faster and more effectively than the virtual target in the 3D environment.
The index of eye performance was higher than the index of hand performance because the extraocular muscles that shift the eye are the fastest muscle in the human body [
41]. Therefore, the speed gain of the eye made a difference over the hand for the same distances and resulted a higher index of eye performance. Our study is consistent with [
42], which reported that eye performance was much higher than hand click performance.
The index of hand and eye performances in the 3D environment was lower than in the 2D environment. This condition happened because the movement time in the 3D environment was longer than movement time in the 2D environment. The index of performance was the result of the index of difficulty divided by the movement time; therefore, a longer movement time would result in a lower index of difficulty.
In the 3D environment, participants had longer hand and eye movement times with a lower index of hand and eye performances. This condition might have been caused by the accommodation-vergence conflict when participants perceived a virtual target in the 3D environment [
20,
24,
43]. This conflict might influence the binocular ability vision of participants to focus on the virtual target. Moreover, this conflict might have affected the speed and accuracy of the task [
44].
Eye fixation accuracy declined when the participants performed in the 3D environment. Eye fixation accuracy was determined as the percentage deviation between eye fixation location and the projected images of the target in the 2D environment. Participants performed precisely when they perceived the target in the 2D environment. Participants encountered difficulty to fixate accurately on the projected images of the virtual target. High difficulty levels of cognitive processing might be a factor of lower accuracy in the 3D environment. Holmqvist et al. [
11] stated that a microsaccade, an eye fixation movement tremor, and drift could happen due to a high difficulty level of cognitive processing. Moreover, low accuracy could have occurred because of perceived depth error [
45]. Therefore, eye fixation accuracy became lower in the 3D environment.
A longer time to first fixation happened when participants performed in the 3D environment. This was not surprising since participants required more processing time in the 3D environment to recognize and to identify the location of the virtual ball. In order to perceived the virtual target clearly, participants needed longer eye adaptation and accommodation processes.
Based on the saccadic duration and revisited fixation duration, the results showed that saccadic duration and revisited fixation duration in the 3D environment were longer than those in the 2D environment. In the 3D environment, participants spent significantly more time in revisited fixation. Depth perception was required to perceive the virtual target in stereoscopic displays [
46,
47]. Difficulty to perceive the virtual target could affect the revisited fixation duration. Moreover, some participants reported that they found it more difficult to perceive the virtual target in the 3D environment compared to the 2D environment.
The error rate was not significantly different from the environment. Overall, the error rate calculation was below 7%. The results implied that there was no speed–accuracy trade-off in this study. Therefore, the hand and eye movement results could be acknowledged as being truly an effect of the visual environment.
4.2. The Effect of Depth
The results of the repeated measures ANOVA revealed that there was no significant difference between depth and hand and eye movement times, the index of hand and eye performances, error rate, eye fixation accuracy, number of fixations, time to first fixation, saccadic duration, and revisited fixation duration. Even though the results showed no significant difference, there were trends in the results when participants performed the task in three different levels of depth.
Participants had longer eye movement time, longer hand movement time, longer saccadic duration, and longer revisited fixation duration when the target was presented closer to their eyes. Although depth was found not significantly affect most of the independent variables, the index of eye and hand performances were found lower at a depth of 140 cm compared to 190 cm and 210 cm. Moreover, participants had a higher error rate when the target was brought closer to the participants’ eyes at a depth of 140 cm.
Psychophysical research reported that the implication of depth perception could affect human perception to see the target clearly. The compilation of experiment results about depth judgment reported misjudgment made by participants. They judged the depth distance to be smaller than the actual depth of target [
48,
49,
50,
51]. Therefore, depth could contribute to a longer hand and eye movement time, saccadic duration, and revisited fixation duration a lower index of hand and eye performance, and a higher error rate when the target projected closer to the participants’ eyes.
4.3. The Effect of Index of Difficulty (ID)
The result of the repeated measures ANOVA reported that hand movement time, index of hand and eye performance, error rate, eye fixation accuracy, number of fixations, saccadic duration, and revisited fixation duration had a significant difference in six different levels of index of difficulty. However, there was no significant effect of index of difficulty on eye movement time and time to first fixation. Our previous study applied structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze the interrelationship among ID and selected eye movement parameters [
29]. We also found that ID had significant effects on eye movement time and number of fixations. In addition, we also revealed that ID had no significant effect on time to first fixation. Despite it being a different statistical technique, the repeated measures ANOVA analysis matches with the previous SEM analysis. Moreover, post-hoc analysis in one-way repeated ANOVA could reveal significant differences among the group which could not be obtained by utilizing an SEM analysis.
Hand and eye movement times increased when the index of difficulty increased. Similarly, saccadic duration and revisited fixation duration were longer when the index of difficulty level increased. Many researchers reported higher correlations between movement time and the index of difficulty [
52,
53,
54,
55,
56]. Similarly, in this study, the index of difficulty significantly affected hand and eye movement time as well as saccadic duration and revisited fixation duration.
Hand and eye movement times were related to the index of hand and eye performance. The increase of movement time would be compensated for by the increase in the index of difficulty and decrease the value of the index of performance [
38]. However, in this study, the results reported that participants had a higher index of hand and eye performances when they performed the tapping tasks at a higher level of index of difficulty. This occurred because of the slightly different in value between eye and hand movement times for each level of index of difficulty. Thus, the index of hand and eye performances would be high when the short movement time was divided by the high-level index of difficulty. Longer movement times have been consequently associated with the number of fixations [
38]. In line with this study, longer movement times, caused by a higher level index of difficulty, lead to a higher number of fixations.
The index of difficulty influenced the error rate made by the participant in this experiment. Higher levels of index of difficulty caused a higher error rate and eye fixation accuracy. Wade et al. [
57] and Card et al. [
58] reported that decreasing target width caused a higher error rate. The smaller target width increased the difficulty level for the participants to perceive the target location, which would lead to an inaccuracy in the tapping task.
4.4. Practical Implications
Generally, poor visual and motor performances may have an impact on consumer acceptance of 3D TVs. This study provided a general implication for users to perceive virtual objects in 3D TVs or stereoscopic displays. The results revealed that poor visual and motor performances may have an impact on the acceptance of 3D TVs due to visual discomfort or fatigue. The variation of depth had no significant difference at different levels on any independent variable. The visual and motor performance was good in combination with depth in the experiment. However, the distance from the user to the display (3D TV) revealed that the depth of 210 cm had the best eye movement and motor performance compared with the distance (190 cm and 140 cm). The depth (210 cm) should minimize the vergence accommodation conflict for the users. In addition, the smallest depth (140 cm) would affect the visual phenomenon that occurs when the brain receives mismatching cues between vergence and accommodation of the eye. Thus, depth should be considered in order to minimize visual discomfort and vergence accommodation conflict.
4.5. Limiations and Future Research Directions
Despite the substantial contributions of this study, we would like to mention several limitations in this study. First, we purely investigated the effect of 3D TVs on eye movement and motor performance. Future research should propose a new technical solution to capture the physical and psychological changes simultaneously when a person watches a 3D TV. Second, the statistical analysis was RM-ANOVA, which could not investigate the effect of one independent variable on two or more dependent variables simultaneously. Future research that incorporates structural equation modeling or data mining techniques would be a promising direction. Finally, curved display TVs are currently becoming available on the market. Using our approach, future research could investigate the effect of curved display TVs on eye movement and motor performance.
5. Conclusions
Three-dimensional TVs have been commercialized in recent years; however, the commercialization of them has faced difficulties on the market. The purpose of this study was mainly to investigate in depth the effects of 3D TV environments on eye movement and motor performance. We also discussed the effect of parallax and index of difficulty, since both variables could influence eye movement and motor performance.
The results showed that the environment had significant effects on eye movement time, index of eye performance, eye fixation accuracy, number of fixations, time to first fixation, saccadic duration, revisited fixation duration, hand movement time, index of hand performance, and error rate. Participants were found to have longer eye movement time, lower index of eye performance, longer time to first fixation, longer saccade duration, longer revisited fixation duration, lower eye gaze accuracy, longer hand movement time, and lower index of hand performance when the target was presented in a 3D environment.
Interestingly, no significant effects of environment were found on the number of fixations and error rate. Regarding ID, the results showed that there were significant main effects between index of difficulty and hand movement time, index of hand and eye performances, error rate, eye fixation accuracy, saccadic duration, and revisited fixation duration. Finally, no significant differences were found between different levels of depth on any independent variables, although bigger depth (210 cm) mostly had the best eye movement and motor performance compared with smaller depth (190 cm and 140 cm).
This study is the first in-depth investigations of the effect of 3D TVs to eye movement and motor performance. The parameters could be beneficial for developers [
35,
36] and virtual reality researchers [
59,
60,
61,
62,
63] to enhance the human performance of 3D TVs.