Cybersickness in the presence of scene rotational movements along different axes

Compelling scene movements in a virtual reality (VR) system can cause sympt oms of motion sickness (i.e., cybersickness). A within-subject experiment h as been conducted to investigate the effects of scene oscillations along di fferent axes on the level of cybersickness. Sixteen male participants were exposed to four 20-min VR simulation sessions. The four sessions used the s ame virtual environment but with scene oscillations along different axes, i .e., pitch, yaw, roll, or no oscillation (speed: 30 degrees /s, range: +/- 60 degrees). Verbal ratings of the level of nausea were taken at 5-min inte rvals during the sessions and sickness symptoms were also measured before a nd after the sessions using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ). In the presence of scene oscillation, both nausea ratings and SSQ scores incre ased at significantly higher rates than with no oscillation. While individu al participants exhibited different susceptibilities to nausea associated w ith VR simulation containing scene oscillations along different rotational axes, the overall effects of axis among our group of 16 randomly selected p articipants were not significant. The main effects of, and interactions amo ng, scene oscillation, duration, and participants are discussed in the pape r. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.