A Perceptual Model for Eccentricity-dependent Spatio-temporal Flicker Fusion and its Applications to Foveated Graphics
This work addresses the challenge of optimizing VR/AR displays for human visual perception, enabling more efficient graphics techniques for wearable computing systems.
The paper tackled the problem of limited attention to temporal aspects in foveated graphics by introducing a new perceptual model that jointly measures eccentricity-dependent spatio-temporal flicker fusion thresholds, predicting imperceptible temporal information. The result includes validation through a user study and prediction of bandwidth savings 7x higher than current spatial-only models.
Virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) displays strive to provide a resolution, framerate and field of view that matches the perceptual capabilities of the human visual system, all while constrained by limited compute budgets and transmission bandwidths of wearable computing systems. Foveated graphics techniques have emerged that could achieve these goals by exploiting the falloff of spatial acuity in the periphery of the visual field. However, considerably less attention has been given to temporal aspects of human vision, which also vary across the retina. This is in part due to limitations of current eccentricity-dependent models of the visual system. We introduce a new model, experimentally measuring and computationally fitting eccentricity-dependent critical flicker fusion thresholds jointly for both space and time. In this way, our model is unique in enabling the prediction of temporal information that is imperceptible for a certain spatial frequency, eccentricity, and range of luminance levels. We validate our model with an image quality user study, and use it to predict potential bandwidth savings 7x higher than those afforded by current spatial-only foveated models. As such, this work forms the enabling foundation for new temporally foveated graphics techniques.