A Study on Immersion and VR Sickness in Walking Interaction for Immersive Virtual Reality Applications

Abstract

This study analyzes walking interaction to enhance the immersion and minimize virtual reality (VR) sickness of users by conducting experiments. In this study, the walking interaction is composed of three steps using input devices with a simple structure that can be easily used by anyone. The first step consists of a gamepad control method, which is the most popular but has low presence. The second step consists of a hand-based walking control interface, which is mainly used for interaction in VR applications. The last step consists of a march-in-place detection simulator that interacts with the legs-the key body parts for walking. Four experiments were conducted to determine the degree of direct expression of intention by users in the course of walking interactions that can improve immersion, presence, and prevent VR sickness in VR applications. With regard to the experiments in this study, survey experiments were conducted for general users using the Wilcoxon test, a presence questionnaire, and simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ). In addition, the technical performance of the VR scenes used in the experiment was analyzed. The experimental results showed that higher immersion was achieved when interactions that felt closer to real walking were provided in VR. Furthermore, it was found that even control methods with a simple structure could be used for walking interactions with minimal VR sickness. Finally, a satisfactory presence was found in VR if the user was able interact using his or her own legs.

Factors Associated With Virtual Reality Sickness in Head-Mounted Displays: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…For example, being stationary in the real world may induce a greater conflict in a virtual environment where there is movement and hence may increase nausea symptoms. This is consistent with research that indicates a reduction in symptoms when user-initiated movement is matched to the environment (Lee et al, 2017;Misha et al, 2018), these findings also support the sensory conflict theory relating to a visual-vestibular conflict (Reason and Brand, 1975). Thus, the visual-vestibular conflict may be exacerbated by the type of content (moving vs. static) being viewed combined with the locomotion method.…”

“…Recent advances in HMD technology (field of view, resolution, framerate, and ergonomic factors) have increased the levels of immersion and realism that may have an influence on the occurrence of VR sickness (Nichols, 1999;Lee et al, 2017;Kourtesis et al, 2019). For example, if an image is clear and tracking of movement is accurate, there may be fewer sensory conflicts, and that could lead to a reduction in VR sickness symptoms (White et al, 2015;Shin et al, 2016;Ray et al, 2018).…”

Factors associated with virtual reality sickness in head-mounted displays: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…For example, being stationary in the real world may induce a greater conflict in a virtual environment where there is movement and hence may increase nausea symptoms. Consistent with research that indicates a reduction in symptoms when user-initiated movement is matched to the environment (Lee et al, 2017;Misha, Xuhai, Aske, & Pattie, 2018), these findings also support the sensory conflict theory relating to a visual-vestibular conflict (Reason & Brand, 1975). Thus, the visual-vestibular conflict may be exacerbated by the type of content (moving vs static) being viewed combined with the locomotion method.…”

“…Recent advances in HMD technology (field of view, resolution, framerate and ergonomic factors) have increased the levels of immersion and realism that may have an influence on the occurrence of VR sickness (Kourtesis, Collina, Doumas, & MacPherson, 2019;Lee, Kim, & Kim, 2017;Nichols, 1999). For example, if an image is clear and tracking of movement is accurate, there may be fewer sensory conflicts, and that could lead to a reduction in VR sickness symptoms (Ray, Jung, & Larabi, 2018;Shin, An, Park, Baek, & Lee, 2016;White, Byagowi, & Moussavi, 2015).…”

Maze Terrain Authoring System in Immersive Virtual Reality for New Visual Realism

“…Furthermore, studies have been carried out to analyze the factors that improve the presence in interactions using gazes and hands in the application aspect of immersive VR [4,5,22]. To satisfy the improved presence of the user in immersive VR, visual satisfaction should be preceded.…”