The connection between verticality estimation and cybersickness

What is it about?

Immersing in Virtual Reality (VR) applications can be an exciting experience, but it can also cause some people to feel uneasy, a condition known as cybersickness. Symptoms include discomfort, dizziness, and nausea, which make the experience of VR applications less enjoyable and even unsafe. To improve VR experiences, especially for people trying it for the first time, there’s a need to predict who might get sick without relying on questionnaires which often focus on past experience. This study uses a simple test called the Rod and Frame Test (RFT) to measure how people estimate their verticality in a visually ambiguous VR environment. The RFT has been used before to study simulator sickness and cybersickness. Based on past research, it is expected that people who are less distracted by ambiguous visual information are more likely to experience cybersickness. To induce cybersickness a virtual environment (the City) was used. The City allowed the participant to collect checkpoints on their way through the streets of an urban scenario. The order in which a participant completed the RFT and the City was randomized. Data from 76 participants were analyzed. Participants less distracted by the ambiguous visual information were more likely to experience cybersickness, but this was only true for one special case: those participants who completed the RFT after experiencing the City, and only for immediate ratings of cybersickness. Since the symptoms of cybersickness varied depending on the order in which VR environments were experienced, the RFT is not applicable predict cybersickness. Although the RFT was not suitable as a screening method, it might still help assess how someone is feeling during VR use. Future research should investigate the various factors that lead to cybersickness, promoting the idea of open science for a precise understanding of the use context.

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Photo by Lefty Kasdaglis on Unsplash

Photo by Lefty Kasdaglis on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Previous research has used VR setups that induced cybersickness. However, those setups often had limited interaction—kind of like watching a 3D movie instead of letting you really explore. In contrast, this study explores a VR environment (the City) which is more similar to real video games that let you roam freely, although real open-world games allow for much more than just picking up virtual checkpoints. This study also follows open science practices, meaning the methods, research data, and article are all available for everyone to access.

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