A Simulator Sickness Literature Review

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A Simulator Sickness Literature Review

• Michael A. Mollenhauer
• 12/19/2003

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Project Background

• US Army TACOM Funded SBIR (Phase 2)
• CAVE-Based Driving Simulator with Mini-Motion
  Base for Off-Road Driving
• End Goal Virtual Vehicle Design Platform
• Understand How Different Configurations Effect
  Driving Performance and Simulator Adaptation
  Syndrome

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Research Issues

• Visuals Presentation
• HMD vs. CAVE Stereo vs. CAVE Mono
• Motion Tuning Parameters
• Degrees of Freedom
• Motion Scaling
• Response Frequency
• Display Configurations
• Wide vs. Narrow FOV
• Curved vs. Flat Screens

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Driving Environment
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Literature Review Task

• 144 Papers Reviewed / 120 Incorporated
• Search Topics Included Various Aspects Of
• Simulator Sickness
• Driving Simulation
• Motion Cueing
• Visual Displays for Simulation
• Virtual Environments
• Driving Performance
• Simulator Validation
• Off-Road Driving

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Document Outline

• The Simulator Sickness Issue
• Theories of Simulator Sickness
• Important Aspects of Visual System
• Important Aspects of Vestibular System
• Simulator Design Factors

• Field of View
• Display Flicker
• Image Resolution
• Graphics Update Rate
• Display Refresh Rate
• Mono, Stereo
• HMDs
• Motion Cueing

• System Calibration
• Transport Delay
• Environmental Conditions
• Simulator Adaptation
• Visual Vehicle References
• Independent Visual Background

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Download Lit Review
www.simcreator.com
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Interesting New Research

• University of Washington, HIT Lab
• Prothero, J., Hoffman, H., Furness, T., Parker,
  D., and Wells, M. (1995)
• Began exploration of rest frames and the impact
  they have on vection and presence
• Rest Frame Hypothesis

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Rest Frames in Spatial Perception

• Perception of space depends on reference frames
  from which judgements of position, orientation,
  and motion are derived
• Reference frame taken to be stationary is called
  the selected rest frame and this processing
  occurs at sub-conscious level
• Subjective rest frames can be formed incorrectly
  resulting in illusory perceived self-motion
  (vection) and illusory self-position and
  orientation (presence)

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Rest Frames in Virtual Environments

• How is rest frame selected? Major determinant ?
  what is perceived to be background
• Example Induced motion - illusion of watching
  another car out the window at a stoplight
• Other car moves forward but you feel as though
  you are moving backwards
• Other car has been accepted as background and
  sensory systems perceive it to be stationary

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Relationship to Simulator Sickness

• Sickness does not occur from conflicting cues but
  rather from conflicting rest frames deduced from
  various virtual environment stimuli (Prothero,
  Draper, Furness, Parker, and Wells, 1999)
• To avoid sim sickness do not remove all
  conflicting motion cues but rather remove
  discrepancies that indicate conflicting rest
  frames

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Independent Visual Background

• Hypothesis Presenting an independent visual cue
  in background that is consistent with inertial
  cues may reduce sickness even if not in agreement
  with foreground cues (Prothero, Draper, Furness,
  Parker, and Wells, 1997)

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Supporting Research

• Prothero, J., Draper, M., Furness, T., Parker, D.
  and Wells, M. (1999)
• See-through vs. occluded background HMDs
• See-through HMD with stable background resulted
  in lower SSQ and Ataxia measures but did not
  affect vection ratings
• Second experiment added a task that required
  attention in the content of interest and
  duplicated results

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Additional Research

• Duh, Parker, and Furness (2001) frequency of
  stimuli and IVB brighness
• IVB reduced ataxia for low frequency stimuli .05
  Hz vs .8 Hz
• More effective with brighter IVB
• Duh, Abi-Rached, Parker, and Furness (2002)
  depth in stereo displays
• IVB reduced ataxia
• No differences reported for varying the depth of
  IVB presentation

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Additional Research (contd)

• Duh, Parker, and Furness (2003) central vs.
  peripheral vs. both IVB presentation
• Less balance disturbance with IVB in central
  vision
• Lin, Abi-Rached, Kim, Parker, and Furness (2002)
  tested IVB in driving simulator, grid and
  natural cloud formations
• Natural IVB reduced SSQ scores more than grid on
  drive sim with complex scene
• More clouds, more benefit (could be due to
  increased luminance caused by clouds)

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Questions for General Application

• Potential for motion induction in complex,
  realistic virtual environments does complexity
  matter?
• Impact of IVB on subject attention and
  acceptance?
• How to apply IVB in virtual environments with
  motion cueing systems?