Effects of 6DoF Motion on Cybersickness in Interactive Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) sickness or cybersickness affects around 80% of the users of immersive media. Commonly known as the discrepancy between the vestibular and visual systems, it causes symptoms such as disorientation, dizziness, or nausea during or after a VR session. Although it impacts a significant portion of the population, the precise reasons behind it remain largely uninvestigated. Some of the cybersickness-inducing factors have been deemed related to how we move in VR. For example, performing more expressive movements could lead to a larger mismatch between the real and VR environment, leading to a higher degree of cybersickness. The purpose of this work is to provide insights into how our movement in interactive VR affects the appearance of symptoms of cybersickness. Therefore, this paper presents a task-driven VR environment where the ratio between real and virtual movement can be varied. To assess the manifestation of cybersickness and the overall perception, we conducted subjective questionnaires and utilized physiological markers. Consequently, we aimed to establish the connection between physiological markers and subjective perception. We found that movement-induced cybersickness can be identified using the variability in terms of self-reports of sweating and electrodermal activity. Furthermore, increasing the ratio between real and virtual movement could lead to a higher sense of distortion of proprioception and increased disorientation. Hence, the applied movement ratio could be worth further research to reduce real area, while keeping virtual area constant, thereby enhancing the accessibility of 6DoF interactive VR for consumers.