Peripheral Vision in Simulated Driving: Comparing CAVE and Head-mounted Display

Abstract

Peripheral vision is widely thought to be important but is not provided in the majority of head-mounted displays (HMD). We investigate whether peripheral vision is important in a simulated driving task. Our hypothesis is that subjects will be able to complete the task more quickly if they use their peripheral vision. We compared subject performance in a CAVE environment, with 270° field-of-view (so automatic peripheral vision) and in a HMD, with 110° field-of-view (so no peripheral vision but the ability to turn the head). Our results show almost no statistically significant differences between the two conditions. This contrasts with the opinions of our subjects: our expert users, in early tests, commented that peripheral vision helped in the task and the majority of our naïve subjects believed that the lack of peripheral vision in the HMD hindered them in the task.