The use of virtual reality is becoming increasingly widespread in the healthcare field. However, many professionals wonder if motion sickness in virtual reality can appear in sessions with their patients, and if this can be a barrier to be able to use this technology in rehabilitation.
Does Virtual Reality cause dizziness?
With the use of immersive virtual reality, motion sickness may occur in certain individuals. An important factor to consider, for example, is that people who frequently have motion sickness in moving vehicles are more likely to experience dizziness with virtual reality.
Motion sickness within virtual reality is also known as cybersickness. Although it can have several causes and more research is still needed on the subject, studies have found that it is related to the perceived stimuli and movement within the virtual world and the lack of sensory feedback.
When visually perceiving a movement or a visual stimulus that does not correspond to what the person’s vestibular system perceives, symptoms of dizziness and nausea may occur.
Factors contributing motion sickness in immersive virtual reality
- Refresh rate: The lower the refresh rate of the video or game in virtual reality, the graver the motion sickness.
- Speed of movement: The higher the speed of movement of objects within virtual reality, the more likely motion sickness occurs. The same is true if the user moves within the virtual world. Action content, rapid movements and abrupt alterations of the VR environment induce more symptoms of cybersickness
- Patients position: Several studies have found that motion sickness ocurrs less with the user seated reather than than standing.
- Latency: If too much difference is perceived between the actual motion and the movement inside the virtual reality, it will produce dizziness.
- Device type: Newer devices (Meta Quest 2 and 3) have been designed with features to reduce VR discomfort.
- Realism and visual complexity of the virtual scene: A positive correlation has been found between the realism of the virtual environment and motion sickness. If the environment is more realistic and more detailed, it generates more conflict with the lack of sensory feedback from the vestibular system, and therefore produces more cybersickness.
- Duration: If people who are not used to using immersive virtual reality spend a lot of time using it, they are more likely to experience dizziness.
Use professional software to reduce motion sickness
Rehametrics immersive virtual reality software has been designed with factors that can cause motion sickness in mind. Environments and activities have a number of characteristics that help reduce dizziness :
- High refresh rate.
- Moderate movements of objects within the virtual world.
- A large number of activities in which the user does not move around in the virtual world
- Little perceived movement within the virtual world: Activities that do move the user, have been designed with an appropriate travel speed to generate less discomfort.
- Patientposition: To reduce dizziness, by default, our activities are performed with the patient seated. If desired, this can be changed to standing.
- Latency: With Occupational Rehametrics hand tracking, the latency between the movement of the real hand and the virtual hand is reduced and is practically imperceptible.
- Quality of the VR heatset: Our software works with Meta Quest 2 and 3. Both have technical features that reduce motion sickness.
- Realism of the virtual scene: All our environments are designed to be an immersive experience, but the user can distinguish that it is a virtual world thus helping the brain to reduce motion sickness.
- Complexity of the virtual scene and number of stimuli: Rehametrics VR exercises have been designed to avoid overloading the environments with stimuli and details. This can reduce discomfort and fatigue.
- Duration: The duration of the activities and sessions is completely customizable.
Considerations during sessions to reduce motion sickness with virtual reality.
Some factors to consider are:
- Correct adjustment of the hedset to the patient’s head
- Room with few distractions and relaxed atmosphere
- Gradual approach to the first experience with virtual reality.
- Specific characteristics of each user.
