Calibration Methods for Head-Tracked 3D Displays

Abstract

Head-tracked 3D displays can provide a compelling 3D effect, but even small inaccuracies in the calibration of the participant’s viewpoint to the display can disrupt the 3D illusion. We propose a novel interactive procedure for a participant to easily and accurately calibrate a head-tracked display by visually aligning patterns across a multi-screen display. Head-tracker measurements are then calibrated to these known viewpoints. We conducted a user study to evaluate the effectiveness of different visual patterns and different display shapes. We found that the easiest to align shape was the spherical display and the best calibration pattern was the combination of circles and lines. We performed a quantitative camera-based calibration of a cubic display and found visual calibration outperformed manual tuning and generated viewpoint calibrations accurate to within a degree. Our work removes the usual, burdensome step of manual calibration when using head-tracked displays and paves the way for wider adoption of this inexpensive and effective 3D display technology.