The Fast Motion Sickness Scale Revisited: Introducing Comparable Scales for Dizziness and Oculomotor Strain

ObjectiveWe introduce two novel scales to measure two important aspects of motion sickness, dizziness and eye strain.BackgroundThe Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS) has become a valuable tool to assess motion sickness whenever quick unobtrusive measures need to be taken. It is well-anchored and provides scalable, quantitative data. However, it does not differentiate among symptoms of motion sickness.MethodWe discuss the benefits and shortcomings of the FMS as well as other, symptom-based rating scales. We present a taxonomy to assess symptom clusters and illustrate the trade-off between fast global and more detailed measures of motion sickness correlates.ResultsWe introduced two separate FMS variants, focusing separately on oculomotor discomfort (FMS-O) and dizziness (FMS-D). Observers have successfully used these scales.ConclusionThe novel scales, FMS-D and FMS-O, can summarily capture, in a non-redundant fashion, dizziness and eye strain. For the third cluster, nausea, the original FMS scale remains successful. Together, they capture the main symptom clusters of motion sickness.ApplicationTogether with the original FMS, the new scales provide a powerful instrument that can be used to sample feelings of dizziness, eye strain, and nausea at frequent intervals. For instance, taken once per minute, they can efficiently monitor well-being in real time in challenging situations, such as autonomous driving or Virtual Reality applications.