| This research builds on previous studies and findings, exploring the application limits of binocular fusion as an inspectional aid, attempting to identify advantageous settings for its use. A computer simulated search task was created to understand the effects of item background differences under both stereo and naked-eye visual inspection. Results concluded that departures from near identical backgrounds under fissional viewing conditions (i.e. two fused items) caused significant performance disparities (increasing search times), while having no effect on the naked eye condition. Stereo-aided inspection did demonstrate significantly faster searches under the identical background condition, but proved no better than the naked-eye when the background difference level rose above 5%. Finally, stereo-viewing was found to exhibit a large learning effect, with participants revealing a 58% decrease in mean search time between the first and second trial. |
