Cybersickness and Postural Sway Using HMD Orientation

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) systems have become widespread in recent years. However, feelings of motion sickness-like symptoms, or cybersickness, is a significant concern. Currently, there is no reliable, objective method to dynamically monitor cybersickness in consumer systems. This longitudinal study expands on prior postural stability research to permit fewer disruptions. The motivation is to find objective measures for monitoring that is applicable in a wide variety of consumer head mounted displays (HMD). This study’s results suggest that postural sway is correlated with cybersickness even without the restriction of the Tandem Romberg stance using HMD location data. To accomplish this, the correlation of cybersickness to the movement of the HMD without suspending VR use was examined. As in past studies the HMD horizontal variance correlates with simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ). Other significant correlations were found in the HMD fore-aft translation, HMD pitch, and HMD roll. These results reveal that measuring postural sway could lead to warning VR users if they are at risk for becoming ill.