Description

Alongside the many innovations brought by virtual reality, some users may experience the phenomenon of cybersickness. Symptoms of cybersickness include nausea, disorientation, and oculomotor disturbances. Although cybersickness shares similarities with simulator sickness, it differs in terms of the frequency and severity of symptoms. In particular, users who experience cybersickness report increased overall discomfort due to nausea and disorientation. Cybersickness is also distinct from motion sickness, as cybersickness is triggered by visual stimulation, whereas motion sickness is induced by actual physical movement.

Although there is no comprehensive theoretical framework for cybersickness, the most common and dominant explanation is the sensory conflict theory. This framework suggests that the symptomatology of cybersickness arises from a sensory conflict between the vestibular (inner ear) and visual systems. Simply put, the perception of postural balance depends on a combination of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive inputs. It is assumed that conflicting motion perception cues from these systems cause cybersickness. The technological source of this conflict is vection, an illusory sense of self-motion induced in VR. Vection is considered one of the main causes of cybersickness in VR. In particular, movements such as linear and angular accelerations are reported to provoke cybersickness in users.