HMD-enabled Virtual Screens as Alternatives to Large Physical Displays

Large displays are one of the core components of visualizing large-scale data sets, allowing users to render a larger amount of information and present it in the corresponding context. However, these displays still have many disadvantages, like the high costs that increase exponentially with display size and the immobility of the display setups. In this paper, we introduce a virtual large screen that is designed as an alternative to physical large displays. It is implemented with the help of the Oculus Rift head mounted display (HMD). Users wearing the virtual glasses are able to see and explore a virtual screen and make use of its size advantages without the cost and location restrictions of the physical counterpart. A preliminary evaluation of our system suggests that the users' perception and cognitive abilities are similar for both working on large physical displays and our large virtual screens.