Comparison of Visual Discomfort and Visual Fatigue between Head-Mounted Display and Smartphone

Abstract

With the rapid development of mobile Head-Mounted Display (HMD), the problem of visual discomfort and visual fatigue caused by watching Virtual Reality (VR) contents became a crucial concern for consumers and manufacturers, especially given that the casing of mobile HMD keeps the phone at a specified distance from the lenses that is close to the eyes. In this regard, we conducted both subjective and objective measure to evaluate visual discomfort and visual fatigue caused by watching HMD and smartphones. Participants answered Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and went through optometric tests that measure tear break-up time, spherical equivalent, and contrast sensitivity. Experimental results show that HMD causes more eye dryness compared to smartphones.