September 24, 2024
Keio University
Associate Professor Norihiro Itaguchi of the Faculty of Letters at Keio University, in a joint study with the Makoto Miyazaki Laboratory at the Faculty of Informatics, Shizuoka University, and Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (Masayuki Miki), has revealed that experiencing a VR (Virtual Reality) simulator again after a one-hour break can reduce simulator sickness (VR sickness).
Using a driving simulator often causes sickness. While this type of sickness can potentially be reduced by repeatedly experiencing the simulator and becoming accustomed to it, there is also a risk that the sickness could worsen if the interval between experiences is too short.
To address this issue, this study conducted an experiment using a VR motorcycle simulator. The results revealed that while sickness did not decrease when participants re-experienced the simulator immediately after subjectively judging that their sickness had subsided, a reduction in sickness did occur when a one-hour break was taken.
These findings are expected to be applied not only to solving the problem of sickness associated with the use of VR simulators but also to addressing issues of motion sickness in vehicles like cars and ships, and visually induced motion sickness associated with the use of a wide range of VR systems, including games and educational content.
The results of this research will be published in the online scientific journal "Scientific Reports" (published by Nature Publishing Group) on September 22, 2024 (at 6:00 p.m. JST).
Please see below for the full press release.