Reducing virtual reality sickness

What is virtual reality (VR) sickness? A form of motion sickness that affects some virtual reality platform users who use head-mounted displays. The NSERC-Prompt Industrial Research Chair in User Experience recently conducted a study on this topic. Results suggest that integrating movement into the platforms is a good way to combat this problem.

INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

D-BOX Technologies, a Quebec-based SME has designed and marketed a cinema seat to enhance the virtual reality experience by adding high-fidelity motion to stimulate some of the user’s senses.

This sensory interface, which can be adapted to different environments (cinema, video games, etc.), has already created a buzz among many content creators. The designers of the device wished to collaborate with the NSERC-Prompt Industrial Research Chair in User Experience in order to check whether the device could, among other things, mitigate the effects of VR sickness.

A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH

Researchers from HEC Montréal’s Tech3Lab measured specific parameters of 45 users of this high-fidelity motion system, during 10-minute sequences. Their readings confirmed that the components incorporated into this chair do indeed increase the sense of immersion and generate a better psychophysiological state among testers.

• They no longer display symptoms of VR sickness (dizziness, nausea, etc.).
• On the contrary, there seems to be a heightened sense of presence in virtual reality (increased head movements, sweating, etc.).

This study, which is a first, made it possible to understand that discomfort arises when there is dissonance between what the body does and the visual information that the brain records. However, when a highly precise movement is added to the experience, it “tricks” the brain. The brain then interprets as being real, what it perceives, thereby reducing VR sickness.

A BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE VR INDUSTRY

The results have exceeded the initial expectations of D-BOX Technologies.

• The company can now position itself better in the entertainment market and consider imposing its technology as a standard. This scientific approval serves to consolidate the ties that have already been forged with the most important players in the sector.
• New doors could open for the SME. In fact, its high-fidelity motion technology could be adapted to devices other than cinema seats, such as magic carpets, or floors, for example. We could also consider integrating virtual reality into D-BOX seats that are already installed in cinema halls: this improved occupation of space would thereby make the investments profitable.

This study also opens up new possibilities for an industry whose rapid growth might be curbed by VR sickness.