| NSF Org: |
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | July 6, 2016 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 6, 2016 |
| Award Number: | 1645463 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Ephraim Glinert
IIS Division of Information & Intelligent Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | August 1, 2016 |
| End Date: | July 31, 2018 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $81,657.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $81,657.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
104 AIRPORT DR STE 2200 CHAPEL HILL NC US 27599-5023 (919)966-3411 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
201 S. Columbia St. Chapel Hill NC US 27599-3175 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | HCC-Human-Centered Computing |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to integrate computer graphics and the human visual system. The technology has been demonstrated to improve task performance in areas such as communication, accessibility, worker efficiency and medicine. However, use of AR technology is not yet widespread, and it is still viewed as a novelty. The PI believes this is partially due to the lack of adequate display technology to support compelling applications. The most advanced head-mounted devices available today present a flat image located at a fixed distance from the user's eyes, and optical see-through devices are often quite limited in coverage of the visual field. In this exploratory project, the PI and his team will design and implement a prototype of a novel see-through augmented reality display system that provides both wide field of view and variable focal depth. If successful, this device will lay the foundation for a new class of augmented reality display that enables virtual objects to have the same focal depth as real world objects at any location, creating better fusion of real and virtual, which will enable society to take advantage of the capabilities augmented reality can provide. Such a new class of display will open exciting research avenues; for example, by incorporating gaze tracking such devices could have even wider research applications by adapting to the user's gaze direction and fixation distance.
The PI's approach relies upon a deformable membrane optical combiner which can be shaped to change the optical depth of the virtual image. This single optical element solution also allows for the creation of virtual imagery that covers a large portion of the visual field. By employing a single reflective optical element as the vari-focal relay optics, this project will simplify the design of see-through vari-focal optical systems for near-eye displays. This technique also promises a large aperture size, leading to wide field of view near-eye display solutions for AR applications. In theory, this approach can provide a full field of view solution with a display and aperture in the proper configuration. Upon completion of a working prototype, many perceptual user studies which were previously difficult to perform will become easily available, enabling a deeper understanding of the human visual system.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
This project sought to develop improved head-mounted displays for augmented reality, displays that allow the wearer to observe computer-generated objects while also viewing the wearer's surroundings. Often these computer generated object are three-dimensional and are placed at fixed locations in the user's surroundings, for example a virtual sofa in the user's actual living room (or a virtual "zombie" next to the user's friend). The apparent distance of real objects is determined by a combination of vergence of the user's two eyes (the angle that the two eyes need to rotate for the two images of the object to match) and accommodation, the focus adjustment of each of the user's eyes. These two factors, vergence and accommodation, are naturally neurally coupled, and when they don't match, the user experiences discomfort and sometimes double vision, and occasionally nausea. One of the problems with most current augmented reality displays is that their optics put the internal, virtual image at a fixed distance from the user, for example 2 meters, even though the objects displayed may be much closer or much farther away. Since the user is simultaneously observing both virtual imagery and also real objects, this mismatch between verge and accommodation is especially problematic.
The research supported by this grant sought to ameliorate this problem by developing displays whose focus distance can be dynamically adjusted to match the distance of the virtual object at the user's current gaze.
The prototype display was developed in collaboration with researchers from NVIDIA and MPI Informatics, proved to be quite effective. The research paper describing it and its tests received the best paper award at the 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality Conference. We also demonstrated this prototype at ACM Siggraph Emerging Technologies exhibition, where it won the Digital Content Expo Japan Prize.
Encouraged by the effectiveness of the prototype display, we develop a still-more capable display, "FocusAR," that could not only dynamically adjust the focal depth of the internal (virtual) imagery but could also simultaneously and independently adjust the focus of the view from the user's "real world" surroundings. This dynamic adjustment is particularly important for user over 45 years old, who almost always need some adjustment either for near objects or far objects or both.
Results from this second display, developed in collaboration with Dr. Kaan Aksit, of NVIDIA Research, were also well received. The paper introducing this display received the Best Paper Award at IEEE ISMAR 2018, the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality.
In the future, these kinds of dynamic adjustments may find their way to commercial head-mounte displays, which will make them more comfortable to use and thus more effective for a wide variety of tasks.
Last Modified: 12/28/2018
Modified by: Henry Fuchs
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