This paper investigates whether a custom varifocal display can improve 3D pointing performance in augmented reality (AR), where the vergence-accommodation conflict (VAC) is known to impair interaction. Varifocal displays have been hypothesized to alleviate the VAC by dynamically matching the focal distance to the user's gaze-defined target depth. Following prior work, we conducted a within-subject study with 24 participants performing an ISO 9241-411 pointing task under varifocal and fixed-focal viewing. Overall, varifocal viewing yielded significantly higher performance than the fixed-focal baseline across key interaction metrics, although the magnitude and even the direction of the benefit varied across individuals. In particular, participants' responses exhibited a baseline-dependent pattern, with smaller improvements (or occasional degradation) observed for those with better baseline performance. Our findings suggest that varifocal technology can improve AR pointing performance relative to fixed-focal viewing, while highlighting substantial individual differences that should be considered in design and evaluation.

翻译：本文研究定制变焦显示器是否能改善增强现实（AR）中的三维指向性能，其中已知辐辏-调节冲突（VAC）会损害交互。变焦显示器被假设可通过动态调整焦距以匹配用户注视定义的目标深度来缓解VAC。基于先前研究，我们进行了一项包含24名参与者的被试内实验，参与者在变焦和定焦观看条件下执行ISO 9241-411指向任务。总体而言，在关键交互指标上，变焦观看的性能显著高于定焦基线，尽管改善的幅度甚至方向存在个体差异。特别是，参与者的响应表现出基线依赖性模式：基线性能较好者改善较小（或偶有下降）。我们的研究结果表明，相对于定焦观看，变焦技术能够提升AR指向性能，同时强调了在设计与评估中需考虑显著的个体差异。