The effect of viewing a laser-scanned display on colour perception and the visual accommodation response

This paper investigated some effects of viewing a laser scanned display (LSD) on visual perception. LSDs potentially provide a high-brightness, monochromatic, image which could have particular effects on the visual system. As a monochromatic image may reduce a potential cue for visual accommodation (chromatic aberration), participants’ accommodation was measured while they viewed an image on either a laser-scanned, or video-projected, display. Furthermore, monochromatic diplays may lead to effects on perception as a result of chromatic adaptation. Colour vision was also assessed before and after using the displays. Increased variability of the level of accommodation was found when using the laser-scanned display, but the magnitude of the effect was mediated by how fast elements of the display were moving. The greatest difference in accommodative variance was between a video display with slow-moving elements (0.016 D) and an equivalent laser-scanned display (0.118 D). Viewing of the laser-scanned display also led to measurable changes in colour perception in some participants. Thus, although further research is required, this paper suggests that viewing a laser-scanned display may have some effect on the accommodation response and on colour perception.