> > Here is an interesting twist on the theme of motion sickness while
playing
> > video games. I read in my mech. engineering magazine that researchers
in
> > England are trying to determine what causes sickness for some people
when
> > playing video games. Related to this, they think that they can use
> > "training" on a racing sim to cure people of real world motion sickness.
> > The sim driving is with a VR helmet, and they let them drive 20 minute
> > sessions on the racing sim, then they are going to follow-up and see if
it
> > has an influence on their susceptibility to real-world motion sickness.
> Interesting, do you have a link ?
> We have serious problems in our fullscale sim here at work with people
> getting motion sickness while driving it. But nowdays they install
> some actuators on the car suspension so it will be interesting to see
> how that works out, both for realism and motion sickness.
Well, it's in my print copy of ASME's Mechanical Engineering. I just found
it online, but only for members. Here's the text (shhh... don't tell the
ASME I copied it):
Computer Games vs. Motion Sickness
by Jean Thilmany
No one is certain that playing virtual reality computer games can fight
real-world motion sickness, say, from the rocking of an actual boat, but a
group of British researchers aims to find out.
Motion sickness can be overcome by subjecting a person to real motion at
frequent and regular intervals, and VR sickness by getting them used to
virtual movement, but a crossover is the subject of study by scientists at
Loughborough University in Loughborough, England.
"This phenomenon of the body becoming resistant to motion sickness is called
habituation," said Peter Howarth, who is leading the research at the
university's department of human sciences. "We've shown in earlier studies
that habituation also occurs in virtual environments. If someone is
repeatedly exposed to the appearance of motion, they get used to it and no
longer feel queasy."
If habituation is transferable to real motion from virtual, play may help
those who suffer from motion sickness while traveling, Howarth said.
"It could be that if people play these types of computer games at home and
habituate to the appearance of motion, they'll experience less motion
sickness in the real world," he said.
The researchers will recruit about 200 volunteers to wear head-mounted
displays and play a virtual racing-car game for 20 minutes at a time.
Throughout the period, they'll report on how they're feeling.
That data will be compared with statistics on habituation for real motion,
for which a large body of information already exists.
"We would propose to habituate our volunteers to the virtual environment and
then expose them to real motion to see if they cope better than people who
have received no virtual habituation," Howarth said.
The research is being carried out with funding from the Engineering and
Physical Sciences Research Council in Swindon, England. The council supports
research and related postgraduate training in engineering and the physical
sciences.
