Virtual reality (VR) holds significant promise to transform the way we interact with computers, but adoption of VR is currently hindered by VR sickness (also referred as Cybersickness), a condition experienced by some users of head mounted displays (HMDs) in VR applications. A plausible theory suggests that VR sickness occurs as a result of conflicting sensory and motor information about the body's movement through the environment. For example, VR users will often experience visual movement only, with no corresponding physical movement, such that visual and physical cues to movement are conflicting. In daily life, the nervous system estimates self-motion based on a number of sensory and motor signals that typically agree with one another. VR-induced disagreement between these signals can lead to sickness, with symptoms including drowsiness, disorientation, nausea and even vomiting. While up to 67% of adults experience mild to severe symptoms of VR sickness, there is substantial evidence that women are more likely to experience it than men, which has led to a low adoption rate of VR technology among women. This gender difference in susceptibility to VR sickness offers a unique opportunity to develop a better understanding of the underlying causes of VR sickness more generally. Physiological differences in sensory processing between men and women are often subtle, but if these differences can be shown to correlate with incidence of VR sickness, it will improve our understanding of the relationship between sensory processes and VR sickness. Better understanding of what causes VR sickness has the potential to make VR more accessible and remove one of the most significant barriers to mass market consumer adoption of VR. If successful, this will lead to better adoption of VR systems and applications by women in computing. Also, with VR entering into enterprise space for training and planning, women may be at a disadvantage if they cannot use VR because of the sickness issue, so this project's success may have a positive impact on women in the modern workforce too.
This project engages in cutting-edge human-computer interaction research by expanding disciplinary boundaries and integrating insights from the field of cognitive neuroscience. Prior studies have identified gender differences in visual perception, multisensory integration, and spatial orientation. These differences could be linked to gender differences in VR sickness, but our current understanding of the underlying mechanisms of VR sickness is limited. Hence, the project seeks to investigate whether gender differences in sensory and cognitive processing are linked to a higher incidence of VR sickness and low adoption rate of VR among women. Exploration of gender differences has led to scientific insights and breakthroughs in medicine, so there is significant potential to similarly advance our understanding of VR sickness. Empirical user studies will specifically investigate: (1) eye movements, (2) visual sensitivity, and (3) multisensory integration, and how these are related to both gender and susceptibility to VR sickness. This project aims to make contributions to both computer science and neuroscience through: (1) development of eye tracking metrics for VR sickness, (2) development of locomotion interfaces that minimize VR sickness; and (3) an advanced understanding of visual and vestibular sensory processing and their relation to VR sickness. The end goal is to improve VR accessibility through development of a holistic understanding of VR sickness and its causes.
This project is jointly funded by Cyber-Human Systems and the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
