Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Friday December 09 2016, @08:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the comfort-of-your-own-home dept.

Wearing a VR helmet seems to cause motion sickness in a majority of people and it affects women more frequently than men.

In a test of people playing one virtual reality game using an Oculus Rift headset, more than half felt sick within 15 minutes, a team of scientists at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis reports online December 3 in Experimental Brain Research. Among women, nearly four out of five felt sick.

So-called VR sickness, also known as simulator sickness or cybersickness, has been recognized since the 1980s, when the U.S. military noticed that flight simulators were nauseating its pilots. In recent years, anecdotal reports began trickling in about the new generation of head-mounted virtual reality displays making people sick. Now, with VR making its way into people's homes, there's a steady stream of claims of VR sickness.

"It's a high rate of people that you put in [VR headsets] that are going to experience some level of symptoms," says Eric Muth, an experimental psychologist at Clemson University in South Carolina with expertise in motion sickness. "It's going to mute the 'Wheee!' factor."

Abstract: The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects. (DOI: 10.1007/s00221-016-4846-7)


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by coolgopher on Friday December 09 2016, @01:44PM

    by coolgopher (1157) on Friday December 09 2016, @01:44PM (#439145)

    > VR is a fad. Incremental improvements of the current tech will never give something that works well.

    I suspect history will prove you wrong on this one. People love escaping from reality, and we'll keep on plugging away on this tech bit by bit until it's as immersive as the "real world" we know today. And why shouldn't we? Reality is all a matter of perception, and unless your religious (or other) persuasion anchors you to our current one, why not take the chance to experience things not possible on this plane of existence?

    Actually, I'll provide a counter argument right here - because likely it'll be only accessible to the rich, and it'll further increase the divide between the haves and have-nots, and that's a bad idea both morally and practically. But other than that, what has the romans ever done for us? ;)

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Interesting=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3