Effects of dynamic field-of-view restriction on cybersickness and presence in HMD-based virtual reality

Abstract

The phenomenon of cybersickness is currently hindering the mass market adoption of head-mounted display (HMD) virtual reality (VR) technologies. This study examined the effects of dynamic field-of-view (FOV) restriction on the cybersickness generated by ecological HMD-based gameplay. Forty participants were exposed to a commercially available HMD game (Marvel Powers United VR) under both unrestricted FOV and dynamic FOV restriction conditions across three sessions. Participants had their spontaneous postural instability measured before entering VR. Then, during/following each of these 10-min exposures to HMD VR, they rated their cybersickness, vection (illusory self-motion), and feelings of presence. Individual differences in spontaneous postural instability were found to predict cybersickness during HMD VR gameplay. Cybersickness severity increased steadily over the course of each VR exposure and was significantly reduced by dynamic FOV restriction. Presence also increased steadily over the course of each VR exposure and was positively correlated with vection. We conclude that: (1) postural instability can identify people who are more susceptible to cybersickness, (2) vection can increase an HMD user’s feelings of presence, and (3) dynamic FOV restriction can serve as a viable countermeasure to cybersickness.