Keywords

Abstract

Learning Outcomes: Attendees will come away with a knowledge of cybersickness (CyS), including causes and factors affecting CyS, as well as how to design virtual environments (VEs) and curricula to minimize CyS effects upon students and learner outcomes.

Purpose: This tutorial is designed to provide those involved in producing and implementing VEs for training with a basic knowledge of CyS. This is significant because CyS can reduce the training effectiveness of systems utilizing VEs and visual simulations, even to the point of making it unusable. Mitigating the effects of CyS begins in the design of the system, where minor decisions can result in substantial differences in the CyS effects of the final system. Likewise, curricula design can greatly impact the degree that CyS affects students.

Background:  Militaries across the globe are planning on utilizing VEs to improve their training, whether they be traditional simulators using screens or the most up-to-date technology such as head mounted displays for virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, or extended reality. There is a general belief among both the general public and the training community that the technological advancements in the latest generation of these devices have eliminated the effects of CyS. However, this is decidedly not true.

CyS is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals experience symptoms while using simulation technology, such as flight simulators or VEs. These symptoms include disorientation, dizziness nausea, headaches, eye strain, general discomfort, and fatigue as well as others. These affect a large percentage of the user population, with some experiencing minor effects easily ignored and others being unable to utilize the system at all.

Improvements in technology have reduced or eliminated some of the causes of CyS, but there are causes that are inherent in humans which technology is unlikely to eliminate. This means that everyone involved in the design, development, and implementation of training VEs must understand the causes of CyS, how to mitigate them, and how to create systems that reduce both the likelihood and severity of CyS symptoms. Otherwise, it will be impossible to properly utilize the incredible potential of these technologies.

Topics:  This tutorial will provide attendees with a basic knowledge of the underlying causes of CyS, which factors aggravate or mitigate CyS, how CyS degrades learning, as well as how to design a VE system and create a curriculum to minimize CyS’s effects.