Virtual Reality Gets Comfy

Roland Piquepaille writes "If you ever participated to some virtual reality (VR) experiments, you know that the environment is quite expensive and not always user-friendly. In fact, in some immersive environments, it's even possible to feel bad because of motion sickness. This is why researchers from Germany and Sweden have developed a new VR environment where the participants believe they're moving while being seated. This approach, which relies on visual and auditory illusions, could lead to commercial low-cost VR simulators in the near future."

Comments

Motion Sickness

[JehCt]

With seasickness, one of the best cures is to sit on deck, feel the wind, see the waves, and watch the horizon. Going below where you feel the motion but don't see it is absolutely the worst thing to do. Perhaps the brain likes all it's sensory inputs to give consistent information. So if you are in VR and your eyes and ears indicate "motion," but your sense of touch (pressure on what supports you) says "standing still," that will probably lead to sickness. I am not sure what to make of this discovery. Maybe they have established better sensory consistency so there is less sickness.

Re:Motion Sickness

[smallfries]

VR sickness is induced differently. That occurs because there is real motion (of your head), but there is a timelag between this motion and the change in picture. Your brain can't handle the lag as your ears and eyes don't match up, and so you feel sick.

The alternative that they are referring to in the article is a motion pod. In a pod you get thrown around alot, which will make you feel sick anyway, but you probably also have a lag between the feeling and motion. Every year we get a bunch of students that write a game on the motion pod as their project. Most are pretty good, but you should see the colour the guys turn when they are debugging them.

The effect that the article is talking about is different. The analogy that the speaker at APGV used last year is when you are sitting on a train. If the train is stationary but another train moves in the opposite direction it feels (physically) as if you are moving. This is a perceptual illusion, and the project uses these types of illusion to make you feel as if you are moving, when in fact you are not.

So what you are calling VR sickness (no motion) isn't actually true of VR, but may be true in this case (if it is installed in a cabinet rather than a headset).

Low-cost?

[DrMrLordX]

I don't see anything in the article that makes me think this new technology will reduce the cost of VR simulators. Am I missing something here?

Furthermore, one of the worst parts of VR simulators I've see has been lack of compelling content. They all seem to feature the same draw, namely that it's VR and that it's novel, fresh, and appealing. Immersiveness is law! Wait, I'm sounding like Romero here, urk.

Ahem. Anyway, once you get over the immersion factor, what's left? Not much, usually. The same can be said of modern eye-candy video games. I suppose the difference is that VR games cost more.

I liked this technology better the first time...

[Anonymous Coward]

When it was called "Star Tours" at Disneyland.

Still one of the best rides there, in fact...

Simulation, NOT VR

[MasterOfGoingFaster]

Hmmm... I've used a couple of real VR rigs (twin SGI workstations for the headset) and the setup described in the article is not true VR. In a true VR, you are in an artificial reality - the computer provides your sensory inputs (visual, sound and some touch). As a rule of thumb, if you can see your own body and the room you are in, it is not VR. The experience is one you won't forget.

You don't get motion sickness in VR, as long as you don't move. But if you are moved, your body becomes confused because you sense the movement, and it conflicts with what you see. Thus, it is exactly the same as being below deck in a ship on rough seas.

Besides, the technology in the article is far from new. I believe Disney used it, and it is much like I-Max movies. At least it appears to be from RTFA.

Something's still missing.

[Rob T Firefly]

Interesting gear, but where do you connect up the telephone and the girl from "Footloose?"