Resting Gaze & Lasting Eye Strain

wintermoot

Hey all, I wanted to share an experience with the device and suggest a potential solution:

My average HoloLens session has been ~40min with no lasting I'll effects. I've had positive, long duration experiences with other HMD's like the HTC Vive without any discomfort. I've calibrated my IPD a bunch and measured with a ruler to confirm the value. I do not have corrected vision.

Last weekend I mapped a friend's mansion.. To give a size parallel, the mesh from my apartment with a few pinned things is ~80mb. This place was about 600mb ^_^ This process took about 3 hours and I gazed at the cursor most of the time at mid to max range.

The next day I woke up with eye strain in my dominant eye (left) that persisted for about four days. I hadn't had this experience before and made sure not to try again until it resided. The kind of strain I'm talking about was an ache above and behind the eye when wrinkling my nose or raising my eyebrows. No issues with my vision, just a dull ache that was could be alleviated by using the pressure point under the eyebrow.

After wearing HoloLens again I noticed that the ache resumed when gazing at the cursor. I reviewed the comfort tips and found that the position I had been wearing my device caused the cursor to fall above my natural gaze. I then tried the following: closing my eyes, relaxing them, opening them, then reassessed the cursor's position and evaluating how relaxed my gaze felt. I had to angle the device down quite a bit to keep my gaze from drifting upwards. I also had to check each eye individually to make sure the device was exactly angled.

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From: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/13405/hololens-fit-and-comfort-faq

"I need to look up or down to see holograms."

Try adjusting the position of your device visor so the holographic frame matches your natural gaze. Here’s how:

If you need to look up to see holograms – First, shift the back of the headband a bit higher on your head. Then use one hand to hold the headband in place and the other to gently rotate the visor so you have a good view of the holographic frame.

If you need to look down to see holograms – First, shift the back of the headband a bit lower on your head. Then place your thumbs under the device arms and your index fingers on top of the headband, and gently squeeze with your thumbs to rotate the visor so you have a good view of the holographic frame.

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I can't stress enough how important these two tips were for long sessions. I've read about similar experiences from extended HMD use, but this was my first after two years of no ill effects. I did not make much of that comfort tip the first time I read the guide. In retrospect, I wish it had called out that resting gaze is rather key and it's something worth getting right!