Understanding the way our senses adapt when playing high-intensity virtual reality games is key to understanding why some individuals suffer severe cybersickness while others do not. Cybersickness is a form of motion sickness caused by exposure to immersive VR and augmented reality applications. A new study led by researchers at the University of Waterloo found that subjective visual vertical – a measure of how individuals perceive the orientation of vertical lines – shifted substantially after participants played a high-intensity VR game.
“Our findings suggest that the severity of a person’s cybersickness is influenced by how our senses adjust to the conflict between reality and virtual reality,” said Michael Barnett-Cowan, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Sciences. “This knowledge can be invaluable to developers and designers of VR experiences, allowing them to create more comfortable and enjoyable environments for users.” The researchers collected data from 31 participants. They assessed their perceptions of vertical before and after playing two VR games, one high-intensity and one low-intensity VR game. Those who experienced less illness were more likely to have the greatest change in subjective visual vertical after exposure to VR, especially at higher intensities. In contrast, those who had the highest levels of cybersickness were less likely to change the way they viewed vertical lines. There was no significant difference between men and women, nor between participants with low and high gambling experience.
“While the subjective vertical visual task predicted the severity of cybersickness symptoms, much remains to be explained,” said co-author William Chung, a former Waterloo doctoral student. By understanding the relationship between sensory rewetting and cybersickness susceptibility, we can potentially develop personalized cybersickness mitigation strategies and VR experiences that take into account individual differences in sensory processing and reduce the incidence of cybersickness. Addressing the broader issue of conversational, cybersickness – marked by symptoms such as nausea, disorientation, eye strain and fatigue – is key to ensuring a positive user experience.