UTSA Duo Develops Cure for Virtual Reality-Induced Motion Sickness

By Jalen Ray

In an ongoing battle to make video games as realistic as possible, game designers often implement virtual reality (VR) technology within their games. Wearing a goggle-like headset that displays a screen in front of the user, the player can see what the character sees and can control the character through physical movements. This sort of technology is revolutionary in the video game industry, allowing players to have a true first-person experience as they battle zombies or fight their way through a war in outer space.

However, for many users, nausea and motion sickness get in the way of enjoying this technology. In response to this issue, associate professor Dr. John Quarles and graduate student Samuel Ang from the Department of Computer Science created GingerVR.

GingerVR is an open-source toolkit that incorporates a variety of techniques known to decrease motion sickness and applies them when necessary while someone is playing. The system was named after the ginger root, commonly used to ease nausea.

“The plan is that game developers and researchers alike will use this software to pick and choose what tactics they want implemented within their game,” Ang explained. This revolutionary software platform allows users to easily access multiple tactics at once. Ang and Quarles hope other researchers will use the software to make improvements. Their goal is to bring an end to VR-induced motion sickness entirely.

Video games aren’t the only arena where virtual reality is used. Applications for this technology exist in just about every sector of the economy—from architecture, engineering and construction to hospitals and schools—offering the potential to take job and student performance to the next level. One survey found that half of companies in these industries plan to incorporate extended reality, which includes VR, within the next two years. With GingerVR, an employee or student can go through a simulation without worrying about performing the task incorrectly due to motion sickness. In his research, Ang found one of the main reasons users get sick in VR is due to how realistic the experience is. “Everyone is different, but looking through literature we found that when a game’s graphics are really good or there is a wide and more realistic field of view, motion sickness is more likely to occur,” Ang said.

To combat this, Ang focused on implementing eight tactics in the software that decrease the overall realism of the game during the moments when motion sickness is most prevalent. These tactics include automatically manipulating the field of view for the player, such as blurring out the user’s peripheral vision. Quarles notes, however, that intruding into the user’s VR experience is a drawback.

It took Ang most of the summer to create GingerVR. “It started out as just a concept,” Quarles explained, “and I asked Sam to take a further look into it.” Though the initial creation is complete, Ang is not yet done with the software. With so little information on VRinduced motion sickness available, Ang is doing more holistic research to find concrete explanations as to why some users experience these symptoms.

Ang is investigating the idea of incorporating a stationary object in the players’ field of view, like a visible nose at the bottom of the screen, while they play the game. This idea is based off the theory that we use stationary objects in our everyday life to keep us oriented. Ang and Quarles have other ideas, too.

“With more research, we would like to create a system where artificial intelligence automatically chooses the reduction technique based on the player’s physiological response, such as heart rate or level of breathing,” Quarles explained.