Analysis of Improvement Potentials in Current Virtual Reality Applications by Using Different Ways of Locomotion

Abstract

It has become common knowledge that the use of virtual reality (VR) applications can very often cause typical symptoms of motion sickness such as nausea and dizziness. For this reason, however, there are also more and more attempts to contain or completely avoid the side effect, which is meanwhile called cybersickness. This paper elaborates on a pre-study of a large-scale study investigating whether the use of treadmills for real, physical movement in virtual worlds can reduce the incidence of motion sickness compared to other common VR locomotion techniques and therefore enlarge the time participants can use VR for training or simulation in companies.

Appendix

Questionnaire:

BEFORE the VR demo was held, the following questions were asked:

• Age: x

• Gender: x

• Country of origin: x

• Previous experience with VR: x

• Good spatial imagination? yes/no

• State of health: (based on 2.3.4.1 Individual factors) [55, p. 20]

• When did you get up this morning? Approx. around x o’clock

• How many hours did you sleep last night?

• When did you eat your last meal? Approx. around x o’clock

• Do you take medication regularly? yes/no

• Have you recently been vaccinated against flu? yes/no

Suffer from

• Exhaustion: yes/no

• Cold: yes/no

• Fatigue: yes/no

• Stomach discomfort: yes/no

• Emotional stress: yes/no

• Ear infections/ear blockages

• Aftermath of excessive alcohol consumption: yes/no

Motion disposition/inclination to motion sickness:

How well do you contract these situations? (very bad/bad/medium/good/very good)

• Ride a roller coaster

• Driving along in the back seat of a car

• Sitting backwards to the direction of travel on the train

• Carousel driving

• Travelling in a car in childhood

• Long rides in the car or bus

• Reading while driving in a car

• Boat trips

Initial situation - Questionnaire for the detection of SSQ symptoms:

Please check how much the following statements apply to you (not at all/something/medium/strong)

• General discomfort

• Fatigue

• Strained eyes

• Increased saliva flow

• Difficulty seeing sharply

• Nausea

• Difficulty concentrating

• Head pressure

• Blurred vision

• Dizziness (eyes open)

• Dizziness (eyes closed)

• Belching

• Sweating

• Stomach makes itself noticeable

• Headache

• Balance disorders

Directly AFTER the execution of the respective demo the following questions were asked:

Demo questions:

What demo did you see?/What form of VR movement have you experienced? No Demo/Passive (Video)/Teleport/”Flying”/Active Walking on OmniDeck

Could you see/execute the demo to the end? yes/no

If not, when was the demo cancelled? After about x minutes

Simulation-related questionnaire for the detection of SSQ symptoms:

Please check how much the following statements apply to you. (not at all/something/medium/strong)

• General discomfort

• Fatigue

• Strained eyes

• Increased saliva flow

• Difficulty seeing sharply

• Nausea

• Difficulty concentrating

• Head pressure

• Blurred vision

• Dizziness (eyes open)

• Dizziness (eyes closed)

• Belching

• Sweating

• Stomach makes itself noticeable

• Headache

• Balance disorders

Other comments/special features:

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