Exploring the suitability of virtual reality for driving simulation

Paper in proceeding, 2018

Head mounted displays is an emerging technology and the availability of affordable systems is growing fast. Replacing projector and large screen solutions with head mounted displays may appear as an appealing solution. However, consequences of properties and technical limitations of these systems needs to be understood and considered.
This paper outline some of the most fundamental limitations of head mounted displays relevant to this context, both from a technical and human factors perspective. Desirable properties of scenarios and types of studies are deduced, based on these limitations. Finally, a meta analysis is performed on the feasibility of transferring simulator studies found in the literature to platforms with head mounted displays.
The result suggest that a noticeable amount (40%) of the investigated simulator studies could likely been performed with head mounted displays. This number could be increased further with technical advances in display resolution, display technology, reduction in latency, etc.