Color Preference Differences between Head Mounted Displays and PC Screens

Recently virtual reality (VR) applications are shifting from professional use cases to more entertainment-centered approaches. Therefore aesthetic aspects in virtual environments gain in relevance. This paper examines the influence of different color determining parameters on user perception habits between head mounted displays (HMD) and computer screens. We conducted an empirical study with 50 persons that were asked to adjust the color temperature, saturation and contrast according to their personal preferences using a HMD as well as a computer screen, respectively. For cross validation we tested a second user group of 36 persons that were asked to adjust the color temperature exclusively. By using a set of five different panorama images-each of them representing an exemplary scenario-we have found that color perception differs significantly. This depends on the used output device as well as gender: i.e. females preferred a significantly colder color scheme in VR compared to their preferences on the computer screen. Furthermore they also chose a significant colder color scheme on the HMD compared to their male counterparts. Our findings demonstrate that content created for conventional screens can not simply be transferred to immersive virtual environments but for optimal results needs reevaluation of its visual aesthetics.