DIY Cybersickness Remedies

Summary

Despite advances in headset hardware and thoughtful software design, virtual reality can still be a nauseating, dizzying, and sweaty experience for some people. From horrific rides on virtual roller coasters to alarming leaps withBeat Saber, you don’t have to talk to many people before someone shares a vomit-inducing experience.As a psychologist at York St John University, in the United Kingdom, I specialize in how wearers react to VR, and so have been in a prime position to observe the evolving approaches to the problem of cybersickness. Significant progress in hardware—including improved field of view, higher resolution, and reduced latency—haven’t completely solved the issues. Software designs like adding virtual noses in the display, visual attention tasks aimed at redirecting the user’s focus, and enhanced visual realism have all shown promise in the lab but have proven frustratingly difficult to replicate consistently in the real world. But a new wave of research may take the pressure off engineers and developers and hand it back to the consumer. The research focuses on DIY techniques that allow users to cope better with VR. Here are three promising approaches.#1: Stand Like a FlamingoThere are different theories about the underlying causes of cybersickness. One idea focuses on postural instability. In real life, our brains interact with our vestibular and proprioceptive systems, which give us a general sense of where our heads or bodies are in the world and create a physiological response that maintains our balance and stops us from falling over.Maintaining your balance is harder in virtual reality; the world looks like it’s moving, but your body doesn’t feel it. It turns out that your ability to balance is a good predictor of your susceptibility to cybersickness. When researchers studied figure skaters, soccer players, and wushu fighters, for example, the ones most resistant to cybersickness were the figure skaters.So researchers in South Korea explored whet...