Dark/Light Mode Adaptation for Graphical User Interfaces on Near-Eye Displays

Abstract

In the fields of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), many applications involve user interfaces (UIs) to display various types of information to users. Such UIs are an important component that influences user experience and human factors in AR/VR because the users are directly facing and interacting with them to absorb the visualized information and manipulate the content. While consumer's interests in different forms of near-eye displays, such as AR/VR head-mounted displays (HMDs), are increasing, research on the design standard for AR/VR UIs and human factors becomes more and more interesting and timely important. Although UI configurations, such as dark mode and light mode, have increased in popularity on other display types over the last several years, they have yet to make their way into AR/VR devices as built in features. This demo showcases several use cases of dark mode and light mode UIs on AR/VR HMDs, and provides general guidelines for when they should be used to provide perceptual benefits to the user.