Makani Aalim, Saryazdi Raheleh, Givetash Sonja, Keshavarz Behrang
KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-University Health Network, 550 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 2A2 Canada.
Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, Canada.
Virtual Real. 2024;28(4):163. doi: 10.1007/s10055-024-01057-1. Epub 2024 Oct 30.
Virtual Reality (VR) applications are increasingly being utilized for research, healthcare, and education. Despite their benefits, many VR users report motion sickness-like sensations (cybersickness), such as headache, disorientation, or nausea. Previous studies suggest that the sense of presence ("being there") in the virtual world may contribute to the severity of cybersickness; however, results have been contradictory, with some studies reporting a negative and some reporting a positive relationship between the two. The goal of the current study was to further investigate how presence and cybersickness are related. Participants ( = 54) were exposed to a VR scene presented on a head-mounted display showing a 15-minute-long passive movement through space. The level of presence was manipulated by including an avatar (astronaut suit with hand-tracking) or no avatar in the virtual environment. Results showed that the avatar group reported significantly less severe cybersickness compared to the no-avatar group. We also found significant, negative correlations between some of the presence metrics (immersion, sensory fidelity) and cybersickness, indicating that cybersickness severity decreased as the level of presence increased. These findings suggest that more immersive VR experiences using an avatar may potentially reduce the risk of experiencing cybersickness.
虚拟现实（VR）应用越来越多地被用于研究、医疗保健和教育领域。尽管它们有诸多益处，但许多VR用户报告有类似晕动病的感觉（网络晕动病），如头痛、迷失方向或恶心。先前的研究表明，在虚拟世界中的临场感（“身临其境”）可能会导致网络晕动病的严重程度增加；然而，结果相互矛盾，一些研究报告两者之间呈负相关，而另一些则报告呈正相关。本研究的目的是进一步探究临场感与网络晕动病之间的关系。参与者（n = 54）观看了头戴式显示器上呈现的VR场景，该场景展示了在太空中15分钟的被动移动。通过在虚拟环境中加入一个虚拟角色（带有手部追踪功能的宇航服）或不加入虚拟角色来操控临场感水平。结果显示，与无虚拟角色组相比，有虚拟角色组报告的网络晕动病严重程度明显较低。我们还发现一些临场感指标（沉浸感、感官逼真度）与网络晕动病之间存在显著的负相关，这表明随着临场感水平的提高，网络晕动病的严重程度会降低。这些发现表明，使用虚拟角色的更沉浸式VR体验可能会潜在地降低出现网络晕动病的风险。
