Perceived brightness and resolution of holographic augmented reality retinal scan glasses

TL;DR

This paper introduces a human-centered approach to evaluate holographic augmented reality retinal scan glasses by deriving a theoretical luminance formula and conducting psychophysical experiments to assess perceived resolution and brightness.

Contribution

It presents a novel theoretical model for retinal luminance and ambient contrast, along with experimental validation through psychophysical testing of a retinal scan glasses prototype.

Findings

Pupil diameter influences perceived luminance matching ambient light.

Theoretical luminance formula aligns with experimental perception data.

Psychophysical results inform future AR glasses design improvements.

Abstract

Augmented reality display performance depends strongly on features of the human visual system. This is especially true for retinal scan glasses, which use laser beam scanning and transparent holographic optical combiners. Human-centered approaches allow us to go beyond conventional optical metrology and evaluate display performance as it is perceived in actual augmented reality use cases. Here, we first present a theoretical formula for the retinal scan luminance and ambient contrast ratio calculated from optical powers, wavelengths, field of view, and human pupil diameter. As a promising insight we found that the pupil diameter dependence is beneficial in assimilating the virtual image luminance to the ambient luminance. Second, we designed and performed a psychophysical experiment to assess perceived resolution in augmented reality settings using a fully functional retinal scan glasses prototype. We present the results of the trials and illustrate how this approach can be useful in the further development of augmented reality smart glasses.