Does vestibular stimulation cause motion sickness?

"360FOV" wrote:
We all know that your visual field changing without your body moving can sometimes cause motion sickness. What I was wondering is if works the other way around also. If by using vestibular stimulation and your brain detects motion but the visual field remains unchanged will this cause motion sickness also? Furthermore, if you provide a matching visual stimuli while performing vestibular stimulation does this cause sickness as well?

I have never tried vestibular stimulation but it would be interesting to hear someone's experience of what they noticed in this regard. Just curious!

Feeling motion that you do not see is a common occurance experienced while indoors on a sailing vessel. It is called "sea sickness". It helps to be outdoors, veiwing the horizon, to prevent it.

So any oculo-vestibular dissonance will cause discomfort for many people.

There is a study to show that GVS (Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation) can be used to compensate for VR-induced motion sickness, greatly reducing such discomfort:

"http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=140&t=15595&start=80#p85256

Thanks, it is interesting to see that even artificial motion is enough to eliminate motion sickness during simulations. I am curious if vestibular stimulation could be an effective afterthought as a motion sickness remedy. The circuit looks very basic so perhaps I will build one of these and do some test to see what happens. I'm not very prone to motion sickness so I will have to find a demo/game that really makes you want to hurl.

"360FOV" wrote:
Thanks, it is interesting to see that even artificial motion is enough to eliminate motion sickness during simulations. I am curious if vestibular stimulation could be an effective afterthought as a motion sickness remedy. The circuit looks very basic so perhaps I will build one of these and do some test to see what happens. I'm not very prone to motion sickness so I will have to find a demo/game that really makes you want to hurl.

Although the circuit is simple and effective, for safety it must only be powered by battery, and any computer connections must be optically-isolated, or RF. You do not want a computer or power supply defect to accidentally send wall current through your head.

The main reason that GVS is not commercially viable is lack of effective dry electrodes. GVS must also be calibrated for each user. And some users experience uncomfortable tingling or pain before they reach an effective electric current level, while others feel no discomfort at all.

However, for hobbiests (or volunteers) willing to play with this stuff, it can be very interesting.

Thanks for the safety tips. I was planning on using a battery voltage source with limited current capacity. Any other power source it is connected to indirectly I will be sure to isolate.

It should be an interesting experience!

My mother had a horrible problem with her inner-ear to the point of even walking around gave her extreme motion sickness.

They signed her up for 'Vestibular Therapy' which really consisted of pushing herself as far as she could go into the motion-sickness day after day without vomiting. Eventually the inner-ear learns and the motion-sickness disappears.. It was a brutal month of torture for her but she's 100% adjusted now.

So that's one, albiet ugly way, to push yourself through.

In my case I get it bad.. not really sickness, but a tell-tale lightheadedness and a sweaty forehead. Not pleasant.

I think when the dust settles, the commercial experiences that are going to be really successful are going to involve slow-moving or static cameras with the action really happening in the environment around you.. And the sad truth is one bout of motion sickness is going to be enough to turn people off this thing, possibly for good.

AG

There was a point decades ago when I had to learn to ignore my inner ear and rely on my vision for balance. Much too often, I would be standing there minding my own business, and the floor would come up and slap me in the face. Really, that was exactly how I perceived it. To others, it probably just looked like I tipped over and did not even catch myself. It was always an unexpected surprise, and rudely shocking and annoying when it happened. That all went away when I learned to (mostly) ignore my inner ear, but since then I almost always have a slightly annoying background queasiness (like I just got off a spinning ride at an amusement park). You learn to ignore such things when they are persistent. However, I become accutely aware of this problem again while using my Rift (which is why I close my eyes while turning my body with an controller in VR). I plan to use a motorized chair, to keep my body aligned with VR, so my re-tuned vestibular filters can be effective in VR too. My controller will physically rotate my chair to match my (seated) body rotation in VR. Of course, when I get my Virtuix Omni, my body will turn itself, so no motors needed.
:D