Evaluation of cybersickness in a passive walking virtual reality cognitive exercise

bWell is an interactive immersive research platform targeting cognitive assessment and remediation, developed at the National Research Council Canada. Following a common need from collaborators for scenes with user being passively displaced while seated, the present study evaluates the tolerability of a stroll scenario with imposed head movement while the participant is physically seated. Twenty-six healthy adults performed three exercises containing linear and sinusoidal walking vection with or without an attention task forcing yaw head movement. Results indicate that the system is generally well tolerated. There was a significant difference in reported cybersickness symptoms between the different exercises with a higher level of symptoms reported when angular acceleration was present. With regards to the severity of the symptoms, no obvious link has been observed. The progression of symptoms was not always linear and could be grouped in three different profiles: 1) constant, 2) progression followed by either a plateau or regression and 3) continuous progression. These findings extend the design possibilities and opportunity for bWell cognitive exercises to include more challenging motion patterns, including passive displacement and angular visual scanning with a more vulnerable population.