Can Visual Motion Presented in a VR Headset Reduce Motion Sickness for Vehicle Passengers?

Pöhlmann, K. M. T., Auf Der Heyde, M. S. K., Li, G. , Verstraten, F., Brewster, S. A. and McGill, M. (2022) Can Visual Motion Presented in a VR Headset Reduce Motion Sickness for Vehicle Passengers? In: Adjunct Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Automotive User Interfaces and Interactive Vehicular Applications (AutomotiveUI '22), Seoul, South Korea, 17-20 Sep 2022, pp. 114-118. ISBN 9781450394284 (doi: 10.1145/3544999.3552488)

Abstract

To make the rise of automated vehicles possible and to allow for their mass adoption, one major problem still needs to be solved: Motion sickness. Automated vehicles lead to increased motion sickness partly caused by an occlusion of the outside world (conflict between visual and vestibular system). In this study, we propose the usage of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets for productivity tasks while traveling as well as a motion sickness mitigation strategy. Car motion is simulated using a rotating chair while a reading task is presented in VR with or without visual motion cues being presented in the background. Visual motion cues showed a somewhat beneficial effect on motion sickness in this study without being perceived as too distracting from the primary reading task or affecting reading performance further highlighting the potential of VR usage in transport.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Additional Information: This research is sponsored by European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 835197).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brewster, Professor Stephen and Auf Der Heyde, Mr Marc and Pohlmann, Ms Katharina and McGill, Dr Mark and Li, Dr Gang
• Authors: Pöhlmann, K. M. T., Auf Der Heyde, M. S. K., Li, G., Verstraten, F., Brewster, S. A., and McGill, M.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science; College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• ISBN: 9781450394284