Improving Readability of Text in Realistic Virtual Reality Scenarios: Visual Magnification Without Restricting User Interactions

The resolution of current head-mounted displays leads to poor readability of text inrealistic virtual reality (VR) simulations. This results in unnatural user behavior. Here, three approaches for improving the readability of text in VR have been investigated:1) constantly magnifying a part of the screen (version "lens"), 2) magnifying sceneelements such as signs depending on the gaze direction (version "magnify") and3) augmenting the scene by adding floating texts (version "AR"). These approaches havebeen implemented as prototypes and tested by twelve users, using a virtual supermarketas an exemplary VR scene. The participants filled out a questionnaire, rating theirexperience with the different approaches. Additionally, the time required for readinggiven texts (price tags) has been measured and compared for each approach. With theAR version, the reading time was significantly shorter than the reading time without anyaids. The other versions offered no advantages. The AR version was also rated best in thequalitative evaluation. However, the other versions offer potential for improvement, which can be addressed in future research.