Effects of presence on causing cybersickness in the elderly within a 3D virtual store

Abstract

Along with elderly society's coming, computers with an internet connection used at home can provide this population a new channel to access to information and services, and can also be used to manage internet shopping tasks. One of the primary advantages of virtual environment (VE) technology applied in web shops is its ability to provide a 3D perspective to customers for more real sense on goods and shopping environment. The presence is a great appeal for the elderly experienced in the 3D virtual store. How to improve the presence of 3D virtual store is a challenge for the shopkeepers and programmers. But, whether it is easy to produce cybersickness in the elderly when the presence is improved, or not? The objectives of this study are to explore the effects of depth perception cues and display modes on presence and incidence of cybersickness in the elderly within a 3D virtual store. The results show that participants in high level depth perception cues with 3D monitor (with circular polarized glasses) will experience greater presence than other displays (HMD and TFT-LCD). However, a feeling of presence may add to the incidence of cybersickness(r = 0.671, p = 0.000). Although the feeling of presence in TFT-LCD display is poor than 3D monitor and HMD, the symptoms of cybersickness are the slightest. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.