Demonstration of a Motion Coupled Virtual Environment (Mocove) – a Device for Reducing Spatial Disorientation in Uncoupled Virtual and Motion Environments

Author(s):  
Keith W. Brendley ◽  
Joseph Cohn ◽  
Jed Marti ◽  
Paul DiZio

The U.S. Navy intends to field Virtual Environments (VE) aboard ships and submarines for training crews at sea and in harbor. The shipboard environment combined with a VE presents a challenge for reducing the side effects, most notably motion sickness, postural instability and spatial disorientation. The discrepancy between actual motion and perceived motion in the VE has been shown to be among the greatest contributing factors to side effects. The two environments, virtual and real, combine to create a highly provocative “motion discordant environment.” This demonstration presents an approach for minimizing side effects. The approach creates a Motion Coupled Virtual Environment (MOCOVE) where physical motion is sensed and convolved with the VE scene. The resultant VE has been shown to reduce side effects in preliminary laboratory studies

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Flinton ◽  
Nick White

AbstractBackground:Virtual environments in medical education are becoming increasingly popular as a learning tool. However, there is a large amount of evidence linking these systems to adverse effects that mimic motion sickness. It is also proposed that the efficacy of such systems is affected by how well they engage the user, which is often referred to as presence.Purpose:This primary purpose of this study was to look at the side effects experienced and presence in the Virtual Environment for Radiotherapy Training (VERT) system which has recently been introduced.Method:A pre-VERT questionnaire was given to 84 subjects to ascertain general health of the subjects. The simulator sickness questionnaire was utilised to determine the side effects experienced, whereas the igroup presence questionnaire was used to measure presence. Both questionnaires were given immediately after use of the VERT system.Results:The majority of symptoms were minor; the two most commonly reported symptoms relating to ocular issues. No relationship was seen between simulator sickness and presence although subjects with a higher susceptibility to travel sickness had reported higher levels of disorientation and nausea. There was also a decrease in involvement with the system in subjects with a higher susceptibility to travel sickness.


2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 588-593 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toyomi Fujita ◽  
◽  
Masanori Idesawa

As virtual environment (VE) technology has become more disseminated, harmful physiological influences on users of VE have been reported such as simulator sickness and motion sickness – collectively called VE sickness. For VE safety and comfort, we note a new dynamic visual illusion, called ""rotational dynamic illusion"". Several psychophysical experiments measuring head movement in illusion observation suggest that perceptive features of rotational dynamic illusion are closely related to balance, which causes VE sickness. These features will be effective in realizing VE safety and comfort and trigger advances in VE technology development.


Author(s):  
Christopher J. Rich ◽  
Curt C. Braun

Virtual reality (VR) users are frequently limited by motion sickness-like symptoms. One factor that might influence sickness in VR is the level of control one has in a virtual environment. Reason's Sensory Conflict Theory suggested that motion sickness occurs when incompatibilities exist between four sensory inputs. It is possible that control and sensory compatibility are positively related. If this is the case, increasing control in a virtual environment should result in decreasing symptomology. To test this, the present study used the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire to measure symptomology of 163 participants after exposure to a virtual environment. Three levels of control and compatibility were assessed. It was hypothesized that the participants with control and compatible sensory information would experience fewer symptoms than participants in either the control/incompatible or no control/incompatible conditions. Although significant main effects were found for both gender and condition, the findings were opposite of those hypothesized. Possible explanations for this finding are discussed.


1992 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 334-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Biocca

The widespread diffusion of immersive virtual environments (VE) is threatened by persistent reports that some users experience simulation sickness, a form of motion sickness that accompanies extended use of the medium. Experience with the problem of simulation sickness is most extensive in the military where the illness has accompanied the use of various simulators since the 1950s. This article considers the obstacles presented by simulation sickness to the diffusion of VE systems, its physiological and technological causes, and, finally, the remedies that have been suggested to fix the problems. This issue is also considered in light of previous reports of purported illnesses that accompanied the diffusion of other communication technologies.


1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 447-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kay M. Stanney ◽  
Phillip Hash

Cybersickness is a pervasive and deleterious effect of human-virtual environment interaction. This paper applies motion-sickness adaptation theory to cybersickness in virtual environments to determine if the degree of user-initiated control can suppress sickness. It is suggested that if users are allowed some level of control over their movement within a virtual environment, cybersickness will not be as severe as that resulting from an enviornment in which users must follow a predetermined (i.e., scripted) path of movement. While past motion-sickness studies have examined control versus no control, the present study focuses on modifying the level of user-initiated control such that it matches the needs of the task characteristics while minimizing sickness. The degree of user sickness was tested under passive, active, and active-passive control scenarios. As measured by the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, the active (i.e., complete control) condition reduced the severity of the symptoms experienced as compared to the passive (i.e., no control) condition, but did not do so as completely as the active-passive (i.e., coupled control) condition. The implication is that the level of user-initiated control can be manipulated to modify the deleterious effects of human-virtual environment interaction.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Angel Alvarez-Mon ◽  
Carolina Donat-Vargas ◽  
Maria Llavero-Valero ◽  
Alfredo Gea ◽  
Melchor Alvarez-Mon ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Media outlets influence social attitudes toward health habits. Analysis of tweets has become a tool for health research. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to investigate the distribution of tweets about women´s health and the interest generated among Twitter users. METHODS We investigated tweets posted by 25 major U.S. media outlets about pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women´s health between January 2009 and December 2019 as well as the retweets generated. In addition, we measured the sentiment analysis of these tweets as well as their potential dissemination. RESULTS A total of 376 tweets were analyzed. Pre-menopausal women´s health accounted for most of the tweets (75.3%). Contraception was the main focus of the tweets, while a very limited number were related to infertility (1.4%). With regards to medical content, the effectiveness of contraceptive methods was the most frequent topic (46.2%). However, tweets related to side effects achieved the highest retweet-to-tweet ratio (70.3). The analysis of sentiments showed negative perceptions on tubal ligation. CONCLUSIONS The U.S. media outlets analyzed focused their content on contraception, while Twitter users showed great interest in side effects.


Author(s):  
Silvia Francesca Maria Pizzoli ◽  
Dario Monzani ◽  
Laura Vergani ◽  
Virginia Sanchini ◽  
Ketti Mazzocco

AbstractIn recent years, virtual reality (VR) has been effectively employed in several settings, ranging from health care needs to leisure and gaming activities. A new application of virtual stimuli appeared in social media: in the documentary ‘I met you’ from the South-Korean Munhwa Broadcasting, a mother made the experience of interacting with the avatar of the seven-year-old daughter, who died four years before. We think that this new application of virtual stimuli should open a debate on its possible implications: it represents contents related to grief, a dramatic and yet natural experience, that can have deep psychological impacts on fragile subjects put in virtual environments. In the present work, possible side-effects, as well as hypothetical therapeutical application of VR for the treatment of mourning, are discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Giesel ◽  
Anna Nowakowska ◽  
Julie M. Harris ◽  
Constanze Hesse

AbstractWhen we use virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) environments to investigate behaviour or train motor skills, we expect that the insights or skills acquired in VR/AR transfer to real-world settings. Motor behaviour is strongly influenced by perceptual uncertainty and the expected consequences of actions. VR/AR differ in both of these aspects from natural environments. Perceptual information in VR/AR is less reliable than in natural environments, and the knowledge of acting in a virtual environment might modulate our expectations of action consequences. Using mirror reflections to create a virtual environment free of perceptual artefacts, we show that hand movements in an obstacle avoidance task systematically differed between real and virtual obstacles and that these behavioural differences occurred independent of the quality of the available perceptual information. This suggests that even when perceptual correspondence between natural and virtual environments is achieved, action correspondence does not necessarily follow due to the disparity in the expected consequences of actions in the two environments.


Author(s):  
Kay M. Stanney ◽  
Kelly S. Kingdon ◽  
Robert S. Kennedy

Are current virtual environments (VEs) usable by the broad spectrum of people who may wish to utilize this technology? The current study, which examined over 1000 participants, indicates the answer to this question is a definitive ‘no’. Virtual environment exposure was found to cause people to vomit (1.1%), experience nausea (71%), disorientation (70%), and oculomotor disturbances (79%). Overall, 88% of participants reported some level of adverse symptomatology, ranging from a minor headache to vomiting and intense vertigo. These disturbances led 12% of those exposed to prematurely cease their interaction. Dropout rates as high as nearly 50% were found in exposures of 1 hr in length. In addition, long-term aftereffects were found, including headaches, drowsiness, nausea, and fatigue. These problems could substantially reduce the accessibility of VE technology by the general public and thus must be resolved if this technology is to be widely adopted.


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