Assessment of Body-Centered VR Locomotion on Motion Sickness and User Experience

In this project, we analyzed the effects of replacement vestibular stimulation to forward motion in order to reduce the effects of motion sickness and increase immersion in VR. We examined two methods of body-centered locomotion, specifically jumping and a novel technique: “penguin waddle”, and compared them to the standard controller-centered techniques of smooth motion and teleportation. We then assessed the effects that these body-centered locomotion techniques had on user motion sickness, as well as the impact on the user’s immersive experience. We found no statistically significant difference between any of the conditions in terms of immersion. We found a statistically significant increase in motion sickness for the penguin waddle and smooth motion conditions compared to teleportation. We also found that our jumping condition did not increase motion sickness a significant amount compared to teleportation.