Looking for references for motion sickness

[kzacharias]

Hi to you all,
I am currently starting on my bachelor thesis in informatics.
And it is about motions sickness in virtual reality.

For that I'm am looking for references and sources.
Maybe you have read a book with this theme and found the passage good or interesting....

I would be very great full if some one could lift a bit work off my shoulders
and could direct me to sources.

(I'm from germany so sources in german would also be great)

[eagleeyez]

Interesting! I think you may find it difficult to find information on that as VR is different in each progression and the Rift is also a different VR to the 80’s. I do however think that maybe you could gather very useful information right here in this post from user experiences as these are the people who can tell you first-hand about their experiences.
My experience and what I have witnessed to date with DK1 and DK2 are as follows:

Balancing on one leg holding the other leg behind you.

I will explain the above sentence shortly. I have noticed in many people that have tried out my Rift get sea sick or close to it. Not all but I would put about 70% or more to that figure, if they had been all honest to me from the beginning. I myself only felt a little sick right at the beginning with the DK1 but I got used to it very quickly. With the DK2 I had no problem at all. I asked everyone that tried the Rift before and after to try and balance on one leg holding the other leg behind them in their hand. I was not surprised to see that people who had difficulty with their balance were the ones feeling sick after just 2 minutes in the Rift and the ones that could hardly balance for a few seconds felt sick up to 2-3 hours constant after the Rift. So maybe it’s all a question of balance? I have excellent balance and also I use to ride a unicycle. After the Rift experience those who balanced badly before could hardly stand properly on 2 legs and some had to even lie down. But! One of those people, a friend of mine said he never wanted to try the Rift again. However, I did convince him again. He has tried it out now with gentle thinks like Tuscany, ocean Rift about 6 times now and he just cannot get used to it. Maybe just some people can’t cope with it and never will. This is not just when there is action in the scene or they are moving in the scene but even if nothing is moving and they just look around. 20 people have now tried my Rift and only 2 had no sickness at all. 7 felt queasy and 2 had to lie down and the rest felt sick.
I hope that helps a little and good luck.

[kzacharias]

Thanks for your answer.

My first Question is how did you come up with the idea of balance?
(Which is a very interesting one.)

I like the idea and I'll watch for it. For all that I read till now indicates that you can get used to VR and that the motion sickness lessens over the time.

Did you know that its a problem that already existed at the beginning of train travel?
I'm doing some research on this right now. 😉

[eagleeyez]

Hi, yes I did see something about train and sickness on the BBC a while back. If people back then traveling at just 40mh would have known that we now travel comfortably without any sickness at over 200mh in trains or faster, then I think just the thought would make them sick.

I will see if I can find that documentary again.
With balance I think your body is just not used to believing you are standing when you are actually sitting and sitting when you are standing. Looking around is still not perfect but convincing enough for the brain to start concentrating more on the ears and that is where your balance comes from.

Now realising this, I notice that I gave everyone headphones. Ah! I will have to do that again without headphones and see if it has something to do with blocking out your hearing. It would make sense as your body is at first struggling to Know, where the hell it is and then probably then try’s to gain some kind of orientation over the ears (which of course won’t work because of the headphones) and then you get sick.

I will try that out tomorrow without headphones with my friend that always got sick.
I have no medical background and have nothing to do with this subject. It just interests me and it would be nice to know why some people just cannot cope and others have no problem at all like me. I even watch films in the Rift and I am writing this now on the Rift.

Just watch what happens, if after a few minutes in the Rift you ask someone to stand up while still wearing the Rift and then sit down again. When they stand up they lean forwards and as soon as they sit down again they will remove the Rift immediately feeling a little queasy.

I am also from Germany.

[kzacharias]

Oh this sounds so interesting, please tell me of your results.
I have to see if I can make a scientific experiment out of this...

Another question from my side is which DK do you use?
Because I only have the DK 1 at my disposal. I am thinking about getting a DK 2 for myself but the import is quit expensive and it wouldn't reach me in time for my bachelor thesis.

I'm also very exited about this subject and I need a experiment for my bachelor thesis. So I'm going to do some research on the subject.

Another question of mine is how do you use the oculus rift. As I'm reading your text you seem to have replaced your normal monitor with the oculus rift. How do you do that? Are you running a windows with a plug-in?

I have to say to that that I'm getting my access to the rift on Monday and im thinking about all the possibility's to use it right now. 😄

Thanks and best regards,
Konrad

[eagleeyez]

I will write back later on tonight or in the morning. A couple of friends are coming around soon and also the one who had big problems in the Rift. So I will test them all to breaking point. I am using the DK2 but did have a DK1 I will write about the virtual desktop later too.
till later then.

[eagleeyez]

Hi, after testing the Rift yesterday evening without the headphones I was surprised to notice that my friend still had the same problems and could not get use to the Rift. With the other 2 friends they actually found the experience to be better with the headphones which makes sense as it adds to the atmosphere.

So, It is looking to be not that much connected with the ears. That would of course have to be more scientifically approached and not just my few friends. But somehow balance could still play a part in this. It seems to be really a visual problem, taking in more orientation through the eyes and not as much through the ears as I had expected. It is standing while moving, although when sitting and playing a game where you are sitting is better. I think it feels to some more like a roller coaster effect, even when it is not a roller coaster demo. I am a person that never feels sick on a real roller coaster but a Rift roller coaster does disorient me a little but not too much. It actually bores me, as I don’t feel the seat in my pants.

With the DK1 you will not be able to stay in the Rift as long as the DK2 because of the screen door effect. That alone, causes sea sick. That is why I did not expect that with the DK2, but as you have noticed even without the screen door and better quality people still feel sick.

I use virtual desktop for DK2 and only use that vocationally to get away from the chair and stretch myself out on the sofa. It’s not bad but I could not stay a long time in the Rift as I miss being able to look around and you start to sweat after a while in the Rift.

Oh, another point about the friend that cannot get use to the Rift. He is over weight and started to sweat in the Rift immediately after just a minute, every time. I thought it might be something to do with blood pressure, so I measured him and it was OK. A little higher than normal but nothing to cause that kind of effect. I myself suffer from extreme high blood pressure and have no problem in the Rift.

[Fredz]

Articles (the first one is the best resource I've read on the subject) : http://vrwiki.wikispaces.com/Theory+%26+practice#Articles-Simulator%20sickness
Publications : http://vrwiki.wikispaces.com/Theory+%26+practice#Publications-Simulator%20sickness

[eagleeyez]

Wow, that is a lot of info in one place. Thank You

[Rowdyboon]

"kzacharias" wrote:
Oh this sounds so interesting, please tell me of your results.
I have to see if I can make a scientific experiment out of this...

Another question from my side is which DK do you use?
Because I only have the DK 1 at my disposal. I am thinking about getting a DK 2 for myself but the import is quit expensive and it wouldn't reach me in time for my bachelor thesis.

I'm also very exited about this subject and I need a experiment for my bachelor thesis. So I'm going to do some research on the subject.

Another question of mine is how do you use the oculus rift. As I'm reading your text you seem to have replaced your normal monitor with the oculus rift. How do you do that? Are you running a windows with a plug-in?

I have to say to that that I'm getting my access to the rift on Monday and im thinking about all the possibility's to use it right now. 😄

Thanks and best regards,
Konrad

Hello, then you will have access to the Rift today! Good luck with it.

Perhaps you could get a second-hand Oculus DK2 on E-bay or something like that, that will cost you I think $100 more but you will have it immediately.

As for my experiences with sea sickness: Well, I did not had any sea sickness with DK1 but strangely enough I did had it with DK2! I believe it also had something to do with my dinner just before. I ate a lot of French fries with a lot of fatty sauces and felt from time to time moderately sick when using the DK2. Perhaps the timespan between eating and the kind of eating is also an interesting subject to combat sea sickness.

Good luck with your thesis, I'm doing a sort of thesis on the Oculus Rift for myself too.