A recent study investigated sources of cybersickness during virtual reality (VR) and found variations in visual sensitivity as a predictor of motion sickness.
Why does virtual reality make me sick?
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The findings were published in the journal Entertainment Computing and describes how VR headsets were used to stimulate visual cues by present videos that produced moderate levels of motion sickness. Researchers were able to find that a person’s discomfort with visual impulses are a result of a specific sensory cue called motion parallax.
Motion parallax is defined as the “relative movement of different parts of the environment”.
The authors note that the variability in motion sickness is due to gender differences which is primarily blamed on the poor personalization of VR displays that automatically default to male settings.
"As we tested sensitivity to sensory cues, a robust relationship emerged. It was clear that the greater an individual's sensitivity to motion parallax cues, the more severe the motion sickness symptoms," said Rokers. "It is our hope that these findings will help lead to the more widespread use of powerful VR technologies by removing barriers that prevent many people from taking advantage of its potential."
Source: Science Daily
