Narrowing FOV could reduce VR sickness

(Image courtesy Ajoy Fernandes and Steve Feiner.)
(Image courtesy Ajoy Fernandes and Steve Feiner.)

Motion sickness is one of the big usability problems plaguing virtual reality today, and if you don’t want to attach electrodes to your head, there might be a simpler, easier solution — narrowing the field of view.

Researchers at Columbia University discovered subtly making the image smaller during in-world motion would cause users to feel less nausea without even noticing the change.

“Our data suggests that by strategically and automatically manipulating FOV during a VR session, we can reduce the degree of VR sickness perceived by participants and help them adapt to VR, without decreasing their subjective level of presence, and minimizing their awareness of the intervention,” said Steven Feiner and Ajoy Fernandes in a paper they presented at a recent conference.

Since this approach is software-based, it can be adopted by developers and would not require any changes to virtual reality headsets.

Read full story on the Columbia University website .

Watch a video about the technology below.

Maria Korolov