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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Axis Rotation and Visually Induced Motion Sickness: The Role of Combined Roll, Pitch, and Yaw Motion

subject

description

A well-known phenomenon in aviation and in virtual environments such as simulators or computer games is motion sickness (MS). The amount of sensory conflict is thought to be responsible for the severity of MS, which should increase with the complexity of the simulated motion. The focus of the present study is on the direction and complexity of simulated body rotations in the genesis and severity of visually induced MS. The methods utilized for this study are as follows: Three simulated rollercoaster rides including translational movement in the fore-aft axis and additional rotational motion either in pitch only, along the pitch and roll axes, or in pitch, roll, and yaw were generated. The authors presented video clips of 15 minutes on a large projection screen to a total number of 61 volunteers, who were randomly assigned to one of the three rotational motion groups. Using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (20-point verbal rating scale) and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, MS was measured. Aftereffects were captured up to 5 hours after the experiment was finished. The results show the lowest MS scores in the pitch-only condition (1.95). Significantly higher MS scores than the single-axis condition were revealed in the dual- (4.33) or triple-axis (5.30) combinations, but surprisingly did not differ from each other. After about 1 hour past stimulus presentation, MS started to subside rapidly. The authors conclude that the complexity of visual motion does not increase MS linearly. Instead, the authors propose that adding a third rotational axis did not further surpass the severity of MS reached, as MS reached a plateau in the dual-axis condition.