An engineering Professor named Steven K. Feiner with the help of Ajoy Fernandes has developed a pioneering method to fight against the sickness experienced in Virtual Reality which will be applicable to all the major Virtual reality wearable headsets in the market today reducing the fear of nausea latched with the Virtual Reality immersive experience.
The approach is based upon dynamically yet subtly changing the Field of View of the viewer which the user treads the virtual paths in the environments while being physically stationary. Working on the same phenomenon the researchers conducted a study that depicted that by strategically and carefully manipulating the field of view of the user, sickness experienced in VR can be significantly reduced. However, the strategy needs to be employed without affecting the users’ sense of presence in the Virtual environment.
Motion sickness or nausea is experienced in VR when the participant experiences swift and agile motion in the virtual world while being physically stationary for instance standing or sitting in a couch which disrupts the user’s balance between sight and perception complimented by the effect of sound.
Thus, the methodology works on subtly reducing the field of view of the user and resisting rapid motion and scenario changes while ensuring the immersive experience remains as compelling as before. Feiner and Fernandes are now planning to look into the fact how restricting the FOV could actually help users adapt to the VR environment with a team of 30 volunteers divided into two big groups to determine the various effects of FOV on the participants perception of the world around them.
If the proposed method works as promised by the scholars without affecting the degree of the immersive nature of the overall VR environment, the methodology could be purposeful to resolve the sickness experienced in VR.
