Dizziness Control in Virtual Reality by Vibration Stimulation in Mastoid

Abstract

Background and Objectives Virtual reality (VR) users have prevalently experienced motion sickness called cybersickness. Recently, it has been suggested that stimulating the mastoid by vibration relieves cybersickness. This study aimed to verify this proposition.Subjects and Method Fifty-four young male adults (aged 18 to 27 years) without any experience of severe motion sickness or cybersickness participated in this study. Participants were divided in half into two groups, the experimental group and control group. The experimental group used VR with mastoid vibration, and the control group experienced VR without mastoid vibration. Participants responded to the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ) to quantify cybersickness.Results The total severity scores of cybersickness in the experimental group ranged from 0 to 183.3 with the mean value of 46.7±49.0. The total severity scores of cybersickness in the control group ranged from 0 to 194.9 with the mean value of 44.9±45.1. There were no significant differences between the two groups.Conclusion There was no improvement of cybersickness in the VR participants when the mastoid was stimulated by vibration. However, cybersickness might be relieved with changes in the VR condition or vibration settings.