Virtual Reality Sickness: A New and Old Problem

Have you ever felt dizzy, lightheaded, or nauseous during a VR experience? It's virtual reality sickness, and it's a form of motion sickness. It's not a completely solved problem, and it affects people differently, but it all stems from the same root cause, and there are better and worse ways to deal with it.

If you've experienced VR faintness, it was likely triggered by flying, sliding, or some other type of VR movement that caused a sudden strong feeling of dizziness or dizziness. stun. Or maybe it wasn't sudden, and more like a vague discomfort that crept in, leaving you feeling nauseous and sick.

Just like motion sickness or seasickness, people are susceptible to different things. But why this happens is no mystery; it all depends on how the human body interprets and reacts to a particular type of sensory mismatch.

Why does this happen?

The vestibular system of the human body is responsible for our sense of balance. He, in turn, is responsible for many boring, but important tasks, such as not falling. To fulfill this responsibility, the brain interprets a mixture of sensory information and uses it to form an idea of ​​the body, its movements and how it fits into the world around it.

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These sensory inputs come from the inner ear, body, and eyes. Usually these inputs agree, or they disagree so politely that the brain can confidently make a decision and proceed without disturbing anyone. But what if there is a non-trivial conflict between these inputs and the brain cannot figure out whether it is moving or not? For example, what if the eyes say the body is moving, but the joints, muscles, and inner ear don't? The result of this kind of conflict is to feel sick.

Common symptoms are dizziness, nausea, sweating, headache, and vomiting. These messy symptoms are intentional, because the human body's response to this particular type of sensory mismatch is to assume it's ingested something toxic and go into a "vomit, go to bed" failure mode. . This is what happens - to a greater or lesser degree - in those who suffer from virtual reality disease.

How can it be treated?

For those unlucky enough to be sentient, there are three ways to deal with the harm of virtual reality: avoidance, moderation, and adaptation. Luckily, unlike being stuck at sea during seasickness, one is usually in complete control of one's engagement in a virtual reality experience. Not all experiences will be a problem and people are differently sensitive. We can tolerate some things, but others not at all.

Most VR experiences include some sort of comfort rating and offer different locomotion and interface options. Seated experiences tend to be more comfortable. Teleport-type movements and quick turns also tend to be more comfortable for users. Smooth locomotion and smooth turns are more challenging. These options make it possible to avoid certain elements, and to moderate others.

It is also possible to adapt, and here a little education will facilitate the process of getting your "VR legs".

Adaptation is possible

Sailors eventually have "sea legs" and adapt to an environment in which the movements perceived by their bodies do not correspond to what their eyes see. Astronauts residing on the ISS (International Space Station) have a similar experience: in microgravity, the inner ear does not provide useful information. As a result, astronaut brains eventually learn to rely primarily on visuals. (It turns out that after a long period in microgravity, astronauts suffer from a severe sensory mismatch when they return to Earth. As Chris Hadfield described it in a lecture I attended, "You smile for the camera but you feel terrible.")