scholarly journals Variations in visual sensitivity predict motion sickness in virtual reality

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Fulvio ◽  
Mohan Ji ◽  
Bas Rokers
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Motion Parallax ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Visual Sensitivity ◽  
Sensory Sensitivity ◽  
Cue Conflict

AbstractSeverity of motion sickness varies across individuals. While some experience immediate symptoms, others seem relatively immune. We explored a potential explanation for such individual variability based on cue conflict theory. According to cue conflict theory, sensory signals that lead to mutually incompatible perceptual interpretations will produce physical discomfort. A direct consequence of such theory is that individuals with greater sensitivity to visual (or vestibular) sensory cues should show greater susceptibility, because they would be more likely to detect a conflict. Using virtual reality (VR), we first assessed individual sensitivity to a number of visual cues and subsequently induced moderate levels of motion sickness using stereoscopic movies presented in the VR headset. We found that an observer’s sensitivity to motion parallax cues predicted severity of motion sickness symptoms. We also evaluated evidence for another reported source of variability in motion sickness severity in VR, namely sex, but found little support. We speculate that previously-reported sex differences might have been due to poor personalization of VR displays, which default to male settings and introduce cue conflicts for the majority of females. Our results identify a sensory sensitivity-based predictor of motion sickness, which can be used to personalize VR experiences and mitigate discomfort.

scholarly journals Toward Predicting Motion Sickness Using Virtual Reality and a Moving Platform Assessing Brain, Muscles, and Heart Signals

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Recenti ◽  
Carlo Ricciardi ◽  
Romain Aubonnet ◽  
Ilaria Picone ◽  
Deborah Jacob ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Muscle Activation ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Biomedical Sensors ◽  
Dry Electrode ◽  
Importance Analysis

Motion sickness (MS) and postural control (PC) conditions are common complaints among those who passively travel. Many theories explaining a probable cause for MS have been proposed but the most prominent is the sensory conflict theory, stating that a mismatch between vestibular and visual signals causes MS. Few measurements have been made to understand and quantify the interplay between muscle activation, brain activity, and heart behavior during this condition. We introduce here a novel multimetric system called BioVRSea based on virtual reality (VR), a mechanical platform and several biomedical sensors to study the physiology associated with MS and seasickness. This study reports the results from 28 individuals: the subjects stand on the platform wearing VR goggles, a 64-channel EEG dry-electrode cap, two EMG sensors on the gastrocnemius muscles, and a sensor on the chest that captures the heart rate (HR). The virtual environment shows a boat surrounded by waves whose frequency and amplitude are synchronized with the platform movement. Three measurement protocols are performed by each subject, after each of which they answer the Motion Sickness Susceptibility Questionnaire. Nineteen parameters are extracted from the biomedical sensors (5 from EEG, 12 from EMG and, 2 from HR) and 13 from the questionnaire. Eight binary indexes are computed to quantify the symptoms combining all of them in the Motion Sickness Index (IMS). These parameters create the MS database composed of 83 measurements. All indexes undergo univariate statistical analysis, with EMG parameters being most significant, in contrast to EEG parameters. Machine learning (ML) gives good results in the classification of the binary indexes, finding random forest to be the best algorithm (accuracy of 74.7 for IMS). The feature importance analysis showed that muscle parameters are the most relevant, and for EEG analysis, beta wave results were the most important. The present work serves as the first step in identifying the key physiological factors that differentiate those who suffer from MS from those who do not using the novel BioVRSea system. Coupled with ML, BioVRSea is of value in the evaluation of PC disruptions, which are among the most disturbing and costly health conditions affecting humans.

scholarly journals Examining the size–weight illusion with visuo-haptic conflict in immersive virtual reality

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (9) ◽  
pp. 2168-2175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gavin Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Immersive Virtual Reality ◽  
Prior Work ◽  
Sensory Inputs ◽  
Weight Illusion ◽  
Visual Size ◽  
Haptic Cues ◽  
Cue Conflict ◽  
Do So

When we experience our environment, we do so by combining sensory inputs with expectations derived from our prior knowledge, which can lead to surprising perceptual effects such as small objects feeling heavier than equally weighted large objects (the size–weight illusion (SWI)). Interestingly, there is evidence that the way in which the volume of an object is experienced can affect the strength of the illusion, with a SWI induced by exclusively haptic volume cues feeling stronger than a SWI induced with only visual volume cues. Furthermore, visual cues appear to add nothing over and above haptic size cues in terms of the strength of the induced weight illusion–findings which are difficult to reconcile with work using cue-conflict paradigms where visual cues usually dominate haptic cues. Here, virtual reality was used to place these senses in conflict with one another. Participants ( N = 22) judged the heaviness of identically weighted cylinders across three conditions: (1) objects appeared different sizes but were physically the same size, (2) objects were physically different sizes but appeared to be the same size, or (3) objects which looked and felt different sizes from one another. Consistent with prior work, haptic size cues induced a larger SWI than that induced by visual size differences. In contrast to prior work, however, congruent vision and haptic size cues yielded a larger still SWI. These findings not only add to our understanding of how different modalities combine to influence our hedonic perception but also showcase how virtual reality can develop novel cue-conflict paradigms.

A Deep Motion Sickness Predictor Induced by Visual Stimuli in Virtual Reality

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Jinwoo Kim ◽  
Heeseok Oh ◽  
Woojae Kim ◽  
Seonghwa Choi ◽  
Wookho Son ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Visual Stimuli

scholarly journals Back to reality: transition techniques from short HMD-based virtual experiences to the physical world

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Horst ◽  
Ramtin Naraghi-Taghi-Off ◽  
Linda Rau ◽  
Ralf Dörner
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Virtual World ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
User Study ◽  
Physical World ◽  
Direct Communication ◽  
Common Presentation ◽  
Presentation Media ◽  
Virtual Experiences ◽  
Short Times

AbstractEvery Virtual Reality (VR) experience has to end at some point. While there already exist concepts to design transitions for users to enter a virtual world, their return from the physical world should be considered, as well, as it is a part of the overall VR experience. We call the latter outro-transitions. In contrast to offboarding of VR experiences, that takes place after taking off VR hardware (e.g., HMDs), outro-transitions are still part of the immersive experience. Such transitions occur more frequently when VR is experienced periodically and for only short times. One example where transition techniques are necessary is in an auditorium where the audience has individual VR headsets available, for example, in a presentation using PowerPoint slides together with brief VR experiences sprinkled between the slides. The audience must put on and take off HMDs frequently every time they switch from common presentation media to VR and back. In a such a one-to-many VR scenario, it is challenging for presenters to explore the process of multiple people coming back from the virtual to the physical world at once. Direct communication may be constrained while VR users are wearing an HMD. Presenters need a tool to indicate them to stop the VR session and switch back to the slide presentation. Virtual visual cues can help presenters or other external entities (e.g., automated/scripted events) to request VR users to end a VR session. Such transitions become part of the overall experience of the audience and thus must be considered. This paper explores visual cues as outro-transitions from a virtual world back to the physical world and their utility to enable presenters to request VR users to end a VR session. We propose and investigate eight transition techniques. We focus on their usage in short consecutive VR experiences and include both established and novel techniques. The transition techniques are evaluated within a user study to draw conclusions on the effects of outro-transitions on the overall experience and presence of participants. We also take into account how long an outro-transition may take and how comfortable our participants perceived the proposed techniques. The study points out that they preferred non-interactive outro-transitions over interactive ones, except for a transition that allowed VR users to communicate with presenters. Furthermore, we explore the presenter-VR user relation within a presentation scenario that uses short VR experiences. The study indicates involving presenters that can stop a VR session was not only negligible but preferred by our participants.

scholarly journals The effect of water immersion on vection in virtual reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Géraldine Fauville ◽  
Anna C. M. Queiroz ◽  
Erika S. Woolsey ◽  
Jonathan W. Kelly ◽  
Jeremy N. Bailenson
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
Water Immersion ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Visually Induced Motion Sickness ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Induced Motion ◽  
Ground Condition ◽  
The Impact

AbstractResearch about vection (illusory self-motion) has investigated a wide range of sensory cues and employed various methods and equipment, including use of virtual reality (VR). However, there is currently no research in the field of vection on the impact of floating in water while experiencing VR. Aquatic immersion presents a new and interesting method to potentially enhance vection by reducing conflicting sensory information that is usually experienced when standing or sitting on a stable surface. This study compares vection, visually induced motion sickness, and presence among participants experiencing VR while standing on the ground or floating in water. Results show that vection was significantly enhanced for the participants in the Water condition, whose judgments of self-displacement were larger than those of participants in the Ground condition. No differences in visually induced motion sickness or presence were found between conditions. We discuss the implication of this new type of VR experience for the fields of VR and vection while also discussing future research questions that emerge from our findings.

scholarly journals The Use of Embedded Context-Sensitive Attractors for Clinical Walking Test Guidance in Virtual Reality

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Croucher ◽  
Wendy Powell ◽  
Matt Dicks ◽  
Brett Stevens ◽  
Vaughan Powell
Keyword(s):  
Virtual Reality ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Path Following ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Clinical Settings ◽  
Walk Test ◽  
Therapeutic Goals ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Future Research Directions ◽  
Negative Impacts

Virtual reality is increasingly used in rehabilitation and can provide additional motivation when working toward therapeutic goals. However, a particular problem for patients regards their ability to plan routes in unfamiliar environments. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore how visual cues, namely embedded context-sensitive attractors, can guide attention and walking direction in VR, for clinical walking interventions. This study was designed using a butterfly as the embedded context-sensitive attractor, to guide participant locomotion around the clinical figure of eight walk test, to limit the use of verbal instructions. We investigated the effect of varying the number of attractors for figure of eight path following, and whether there are any negative impacts on perceived autonomy or workload. A total of 24 participants took part in the study and completed six attractor conditions in a counterbalanced order. They also experienced a control VE (no attractors) at the beginning and end of the protocol. Each VE condition lasted a duration of 1 min and manipulated the number of attractors to either singular or multiple alongside, the placement of turning markers (virtual trees) used to represent the cones used in clinical settings for the figure of eight walk test. Results suggested that embedded context-sensitive attractors can be used to guide walking direction, following a figure of eight in VR without impacting perceived autonomy, and workload. However, there appears to be a saturation point, with regards to effectiveness of attractors. Too few objects in a VE may reduce feelings of intrinsic motivation, and too many objects in a VE may reduce the effectiveness of attractors for guiding individuals along a figure of eight path. We conclude by indicating future research directions, for attractors and their use as a guide for walking direction.

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