You’re in for a Bumpy Ride! Uneven Terrain Increases Cybersickness While Navigating with Head Mounted Displays

Abstract

Cybersickness (i.e., visually induced motion sickness) serves as a significant obstacle to the usage and broader adoption of virtual reality (VR) technologies. This collection of symptoms akin to motion sickness can be impacted by different characteristics of a virtual experience, such as visual realism and optical flow. However, relatively little is known regarding how cybersickness is influenced by traversing uneven virtual terrain. In this study, we aim to better understand the impacts of different virtual terrain types on cybersickness in VR. We recruited 38 participants to navigate a virtual forest environment with three terrain variants: flat surface, terrain with regular bumps, and irregular terrain generated from Perlin noise. We collected cybersickness data using the Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMSS) and Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) in addition to galvanic skin response data. Our results indicate that users felt greater levels of cybersickness in the presence of regular bumps and irregular terrain than they did when traversing flat geometry. We recommend that designers exercise caution when incorporating uneven terrain into their virtual experiences, and maintain awareness of the risks carried by these design decisions.