Influence of navigation parameters on cybersickness in virtual reality

Cybersickness remains a major challenge in the virtual reality community. It occurs mainly when navigating in a 3D immersive virtual environment. Several parameters are known to influence the users’ cybersickness level while navigating, that can be either technological or neuro-psychological. This study investigates two of these parameters that are the distance from a virtual barrier and the choice of the navigation interface. An experiment was performed for each of these parameters to evaluate their influence on the variation of cybersickness. For each experiment, participants were asked to navigate in a large virtual room with walls that were textured with a black and white lined pattern to voluntarily exacerbate cybersickness. The level of cybersickness was collected through subjective (Simulator Sickness Questionnaire) and behavioral (evolution of postural sway) measurements. Results allow drawing suggestions for optimal navigation, so that cybersickness can be significantly reduced, thus providing with enhanced user experience.