Human-centric Evaluation of Enhanced Legibility of Out-of-Focus Virtual Fonts During the Incomplete Eye Accommodation
Junhwan Kim, Carlos Montalto, J. Edward Swan II, and Mohammed Safayet Arefin. Human-centric Evaluation of Enhanced Legibility of Out-of-Focus Virtual Fonts During the Incomplete Eye Accommodation. In IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct), IEEE Computer Society, October 2026. in press
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Abstract
During focal distance switching in Optical see-through (OST) augmented reality (AR) systems, users need to continuously change the shape of their eyes (accommodation) to see information sharply at different focal distances. In addition, when the eye adapts to a new focal distance (which takes around 360 to 480 milliseconds), the view of the information becomes blurred, resulting in transient out-of-focus blur. In this research, we investigate a perception-driven approach based on image pre-correction, in which displayed text is optimized to appear sharper during out-of-focus periods (SharpView Font). We conducted a controlled user study with a commercial OST AR headset, explicitly accounting for accommodation latency and perceptual design parameters. Our results revealed that SharpView text performance under defocused viewing conditions is determined by the specific combination of perceptual design parameters and the content's geometric characteristics.
BibTeX
@InProceedings{ISMAR26-hce,
author = {Junhwan Kim and Carlos Montalto and J. Edward {Swan~II} and
Mohammed Safayet Arefin},
title = {Human-centric Evaluation of Enhanced Legibility of Out-of-Focus
Virtual Fonts During the Incomplete Eye Accommodation},
booktitle = {IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality
Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct)},
year = 2026,
location = {Bari, Italy},
publisher = {IEEE Computer Society},
date = {October 5--9},
month = {October},
note = {in press},
abstract = {
During focal distance switching in Optical see-through (OST) augmented reality
(AR) systems, users need to continuously change the shape of their eyes
(accommodation) to see information sharply at different focal distances. In
addition, when the eye adapts to a new focal distance (which takes around 360 to
480 milliseconds), the view of the information becomes blurred, resulting in
transient out-of-focus blur. In this research, we investigate a
perception-driven approach based on image pre-correction, in which displayed
text is optimized to appear sharper during out-of-focus periods (SharpView
Font). We conducted a controlled user study with a commercial OST AR headset,
explicitly accounting for accommodation latency and perceptual design
parameters. Our results revealed that SharpView text performance under defocused
viewing conditions is determined by the specific combination of perceptual
design parameters and the content's geometric characteristics.
},
}