I Am The Passenger: How Visual Motion Cues Can Influence Sickness For In-Car VR

This paper explores the use of VR Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) in-car and in-motion for the first time. Immersive HMDs are becoming everyday consumer items and, as they offer new possibilities for entertainment and productivity, people will want to use them during travel in, for example, autonomous cars. However, their use is confounded by motion sickness caused in-part by the restricted visual perception of motion conflicting with physically perceived vehicle motion (accelerations/rotations detected by the vestibular system). Whilst VR HMDs restrict visual perception of motion, they could also render it virtually, potentially alleviating sensory conflict. To study this problem, we conducted the first on-road and in motion study to systematically investigate the effects of various visual presentations of the real-world motion of a car on the sickness and immersion of VR HMD wearing passengers. We established new baselines for VR in-car motion sickness, and found that there is no one best presentation with respect to balancing sickness and immersion. Instead, user preferences suggest different solutions are required for differently susceptible users to provide usable VR in-car. This work provides formative insights for VR designers and an entry point for further research into enabling use of VR HMDs, and the rich experiences they offer, when travelling

Viewing the Future? Virtual Reality In Journalism

Journalism underwent a flurry of virtual reality content creation, production and distribution starting in the final months of 2015. The New York Times distributed more than 1 million cardboard virtual reality viewers and released an app showing a spherical video short about displaced refugees. The Los Angeles Times landed people next to a crater on Mars. USA TODAY took visitors on a ride-along in the "Back to the Future" car on the Universal Studios lot and on a spin through Old Havana in a bright pink '57 Ford. ABC News went to North Korea for a spherical view of a military parade and to Syria to see artifacts threatened by war. The Emblematic Group, a company that creates virtual reality content, followed a woman navigating a gauntlet of anti- abortion demonstrators at a family planning clinic and allowed people to witness a murder-suicide stemming from domestic violence.In short, the period from October 2015 through February 2016 was one of significant experimentation with virtual reality (VR) storytelling. These efforts are part of an initial foray into determining whether VR is a feasible way to present news. The year 2016 is shaping up as a period of further testing and careful monitoring of potential growth in the use of virtual reality among consumers

A Content-Analysis Approach for Exploring Usability Problems in a Collaborative Virtual Environment

As Virtual Reality (VR) products are becoming more widely available in the consumer market, improving the usability of these devices and environments is crucial. In this paper, we are going to introduce a framework for the usability evaluation of collaborative 3D virtual environments based on a large-scale usability study of a mixedmodality collaborative VR system. We first review previous literature about important usability issues related to collaborative 3D virtual environments, supplemented with our research in which we conducted 122 interviews after participants solved a collaborative virtual reality task. Then, building on the literature review and our results, we extend previous usability frameworks. We identified twelve different usability problems, and based on the causes of the problems, we grouped them into three main categories: VR environment-, device interaction-, and task-specific problems. The framework can be used to guide the usability evaluation of collaborative VR environments

Media Presence and Inner Presence: The Sense of Presence in Virtual Reality Technologies

Abstract. Presence is widely accepted as the key concept to be considered in any research involving human interaction with Virtual Reality (VR). Since its original description, the concept of presence has developed over the past decade to be considered by many researchers as the essence of any experience in a virtual environment. The VR generating systems comprise two main parts: a technological component and a psychological experience. The different relevance given to them produced two different but coexisting visions of presence: the rationalist and the psychological/ecological points of view. The rationalist point of view considers a VR system as a collection of specific machines with the necessity of the inclusion \ud of the concept of presence. The researchers agreeing with this approach describe the sense of presence as a function of the experience of a given medium (Media Presence). The main result of this approach is the definition of presence as the perceptual illusion of non-mediation produced by means of the disappearance of the medium from the conscious attention of the subject. At the other extreme, there \ud is the psychological or ecological perspective (Inner Presence). Specifically, this perspective considers presence as a neuropsychological phenomenon, evolved from the interplay of our biological and cultural inheritance, whose goal is the control of the human activity. \ud Given its key role and the rate at which new approaches to understanding and examining presence are appearing, this chapter draws together current research on presence to provide an up to date overview of the most widely accepted approaches to its understanding and measurement

A Roller Coaster for the Mind: Virtual Reality Sickness Modes, Metrics, and Mitigation

Understanding and preventing virtual reality sickness(VRS), or cybersickness, is vital in removing barriers for the technology\u27s adoption. Thus, this article aims to synthesize a variety of academic sources to demonstrate the modes by which VRS occurs, the metrics by which it is judged, and the methods to mitigate it. The predominant theories on the biological origins of VRS are discussed, as well as the individual factors which increase the likelihood of a user developing VRS. Moreover, subjective and physiological measurements of VRS are discussed in addition to the development of a predictive model and conceptual framework. Finally, several methodologies of reducing VRS by improving VR hardware and software are covered

Enhancing Pilot Training Through Virtual Reality: Recognizing and Mitigating Aviation Visual and Vestibular Illusions

Aviation illusions, arising from sensory misinterpretations, can lead to critical pilot errors. The study aims to evaluate VR training\u27s efficacy in recognizing and managing these illusions. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) subject matter experts and the Extended Reality Lab developed the Virtual Reality Aviation Illusion Trainer (VRAIT) software program to provide users a complete VR experience and training on visual and vestibular illusions. This study investigated the effectiveness of integrating virtual reality (VR) technology in pilot training, focusing on the VRAIT motion-based visual and vestibular illusion training. Conducted with participants from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the research assesses pre-training and post-training knowledge scores and self-efficacy. Motion-based VR training significantly improved knowledge and self-efficacy scores. Pre-training knowledge scores (M = 64.36, SD = 12.71) increase to post-training scores (M = 79.41, SD = 15.02), indicating significant knowledge enhancement (t(214) = -12.433, p \u3c .001). Similarly, pre-training self-efficacy scores (M = 5.50, SD = 2.01) significantly increased to post-training scores (M = 8.31, SD = 1.55), highlighting self-efficacy improvements (t(214) = -17.712, p \u3c .001). Participants experienced minimal simulator sickness, suggesting a well-tolerated training duration and sequence. Additionally, participants reported a high level of enjoyment and technological satisfaction with the training. The study contributes to VR training methodologies, emphasizing the potential of motion-based VR training to enhance aviation education. This research demonstrated that motion-based VR training effectively enhanced pilot knowledge and self-efficacy in recognizing and managing aviation illusions. The findings underscore VR\u27s potential in enhancing visual and vestibular illusion training outcomes