The Impact of Virtual Reality Content Characteristics on Cybersickness and Head Movement Patterns

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality Technology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used but often causes cybersickness, including nausea and dizziness.
• Understanding factors contributing to cybersickness is crucial for improving VR user experience.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare cybersickness levels and head movement patterns across dynamic VR (DVR), static VR (SVR), and a control condition (CON).
• To investigate the relationship between VR content characteristics, head movement, and cybersickness severity.

Main Methods:

• Thirty healthy adults participated in the study.
• Head movements were recorded using a Meta Quest 2 VR headset and analyzed with Python.
• Subjective cybersickness was measured using the Virtual Reality Sickness Questionnaire (VRSQ).

Main Results:

• Static VR (SVR) induced the highest VRSQ scores, indicating severe cybersickness.
• Dynamic VR (DVR) showed significantly higher head movement variations (CV, integral values, mean velocity) (p < 0.05).
• VR content characteristics directly influence head movement patterns and cybersickness.

Conclusions:

• VR content design significantly impacts cybersickness through user head movement.
• Analyzing head movement patterns is vital for cybersickness research and VR experience optimization.