Motion sickness occurs when a user’s senses fall out of sync. Augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (AR/VR/MR) applications can cause nausea due to the separation between in-experience movements and real-world positioning.
Extended reality (XR) motion sickness is an affliction that affects the inner ear when the body experiences repeated motions or movements. Excessive motion sickness can lead to dizziness, headaches, sweating, nausea, and vomiting.
Although commonplace in XR, users and hardware manufacturers can take steps that ensure motion sickness does not occur. Immersive developers also consider sickness when creating immersive games, VR training scenarios, and augmented desktop setups.
Calibrate the Headset to Avoid VR Motion Sickness
Poorly set up and configured XR wearables are the usual suspect for motion sickness. XR headsets and smart glasses contain accessibility options to ensure an immersive experience operates uninterrupted and without sickness breaks.
Meta Platforms ensures that each of its officially distributed Quest experiences passes a series of virtual reality checks (VRC). Meta VRCs monitor numerous aspects that reduce motion sickness.
VRCs avoid sickness by reviewing refresh rates, head-tracked graphics, render scaling, headset positional tracking, multiple locomotion styles, and head-tracked user interfaces (UI).
Additionally, lenses can become unclear and dirty for AR smart glasses and immersive passthrough devices, affecting motion sickness. A user’s best option is the simplest, clean a device’s lens with an alcohol rub to ensure the viewpoint is clear and undisturbed.
Adjust the Device for Eyewear
User accessibility in all its forms is a problem within XR devices. With advancements in hand, eye tracking, and lighter devices, an increasing range of individuals can access XR hardware despite movement or coordination disorders.
Thanks to general accessibility advancements, many XR devices come with accessories that accommodate a user’s eyewear. Poorly adjusted XR hardware for low-sighted individuals can cause motion sickness, much like a 3D movie.
Thankfully, most major XR device manufacturers pack their devices with eyewear accessories. For example, Nreal’s portfolio of products comes with prescription lens frames that users can adjust to best match their eyesight.
Meta also packs a glasses spacer for its headsets that accommodate eyewear with a width of 142mm or less and a height of 50 mm or less.
Seamless Wireless Connection
A poor WiFi connection can significantly affect the immersive user experience from gaming to remote guidance. Poor connectivity can make an XR application stutter, freeze, and run at reduced frame rates, causing motion sickness.
Devices like the Meta Quest can operate PCVR applications wirelessly on a local connection. Although, a poor local internet connection can also induce motion sickness.
Users can connect their PC to a router via an ethernet cable or modify their device’s bit rate to ensure seamless wireless local streaming.
Enterprise and industrial-grade devices experiment with streaming tech like 5G to ensure a consistent wireless connection. Immersive hardware providers like HTC, Lenovo, and Qualcomm offer 5G-ready hardware which does not interrupt workplace operations.
Perfect Framerates Reduce VR Motion Sickness
User must calibrate their headset to ensure a smooth experience. Similarly, a designer or manufacturer must ensure that a device or application runs at a smooth frame rate to avoid user motion sickness.
In an exclusive round table discussing hand and eye-tracking, Johan Hellqvist, the Head of XR Segment at Tobii, said,
“Frame rates of 90Hz are becoming the gold standard for VR headsets, which help to reduce motion sickness and headaches that can occur at lower frame rates. However, frame rates are not just about what a headset can support, but maintaining a stable frame rate for a given application is fundamental to an immersive experience — eye tracking is needed for this”
Pacing Play Sessions
Finally, the most important note is to pace device usage. Most XR devices have a recommended play-time. Suggestions say a user can spend between 15 minutes to 3 hours in XR, depending on the device, although this massively depends on the user’s preference.
While a user may not get sick from 3 hours of XR, a device’s weight or heat may cause discomfort. Luckily manufacturers are releasing more and more devices with reduced weight, a core selling point.
Firms like Meta are designing their devices with a perfect balance. The Menlo Park-based firm designed the Quest Pro with a curved battery pack for better balance.
XR devices may get hot based on factors like the application running or environmental conditions. Consumer-grade hardware may get hot when worn outside for extended periods, requiring a break.
Final Thoughts on VR Motion Sickness
While VR motion sickness is an undesirable knock-on effect from using immersive technologies. However, it affects from 40 to 70 percent of first-time users within the first 15 minutes of their experience.
Despite this, with the emergence of immersive technology, many XR firms are actively combating motion sickness so everybody can enjoy XR.
