No abstract

Immersive Virtual Environment (VE) technology, also known as virtual reality, is being touted as an important new medium for education and training. Other potential applications involve communications, medicine, architecture, astronomy, data handling, teleoperation, and entertainment. A threat to the successful application of this technology is that some users of VE systems suffer unwanted side effects and aftereffects similar to, but not limited to, symptoms of motion sickness. These effects may degrade training effectiveness and jeopardize user safety and well-being. This paper describes the incidence and severity of symptoms we recorded during four different experiments which examined VE training applications. The experiments involved a variety of tasks, simulated environments, and VE systems. We administered a 28 item questionnaire that addressed symptoms related to nausea, eye strain, and dizziness. Significant variation was observed across individuals. In each experiment some users, between 4 and l6%, experienced discomfort to the extent that we terminated their participation. Most users enjoyed the VE experiment but reported some level of discomfort. Our findings indicated that sickness resulting from VE immersion is a potentially serious problem which may not be completely eradicated by improvements in equipment. This paper describes the patterns of effects we observed, discusses the challenges of measuring effects, and outlines future research.

Research indicates that users of Virtual Environments (VEs) can experience a variety of effects known as “simulator sickness.” A PC-based VE system was used to investigate sickness occurring in conjunction with a 20-minute exposure to the game Ascent. Forty undergraduates served as participants. Sickness was measured with the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). Data on gender, possible lingering/delayed effects, inter-pupillary distance (IPD), and final level reached in Ascent were also collected. Statistical comparison of the pre- and post-exposure SSQ data established sickness occurrence. The results indicated that sickness could be severe and may involve lingering and/or delayed effects. Gender differences in mean sickness scores were not statistically significant. A significant negative correlation was found between IPD and the SSQ Eyestrain symptom. Significant negative correlations were also found between sickness scores and final level reached in Ascent. These findings provide some insight into possible effects of VE exposure and suggest some areas for research.

Virtual environment (VE) users often experience varying levels of Nausea, Oculomotor Discomfort, and Disorientation after VE exposure. Is there a difference in symptoms for people who end their VE exposure prematurely compared to those who, though suffering discomfort, do not? Sickness data from 29 participants who dropped out of their experimental study (dropouts) and 29 of the most severely sick of those who completed their study (finishers) were compared. Though there was insufficient evidence to conclude that the two groups differed in terms of Total Severity, dropouts experienced significantly more Nausea than did finishers. Relative subscale rankings indicate the most severe symptom for dropouts was primarily Disorientation followed by Nausea. For finishers the most severe symptom was also Disorientation but followed essentially equally by either Nausea or Oculomotor Discomfort. Ramifications of these findings are discussed.