Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur
Cybersickness is one of the major roadblocks in the widespread adoption of mixed reality devices. Prolonged exposure to these devices, especially virtual reality devices, can cause users to feel discomfort and nausea, spoiling the immersive experience. Incorporating spatial blur in stereoscopic 3D s...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
MDPI AG
2021-06-01
|
| Series: | Sensors |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/12/4006 |
| _version_ | 1797530639537274880 |
|---|---|
| author | Razeen Hussain Manuela Chessa Fabio Solari |
| author_facet | Razeen Hussain Manuela Chessa Fabio Solari |
| author_sort | Razeen Hussain |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Cybersickness is one of the major roadblocks in the widespread adoption of mixed reality devices. Prolonged exposure to these devices, especially virtual reality devices, can cause users to feel discomfort and nausea, spoiling the immersive experience. Incorporating spatial blur in stereoscopic 3D stimuli has shown to reduce cybersickness. In this paper, we develop a technique to incorporate spatial blur in VR systems inspired by the human physiological system. The technique makes use of concepts from foveated imaging and depth-of-field. The developed technique can be applied to any eye tracker equipped VR system as a post-processing step to provide an artifact-free scene. We verify the usefulness of the proposed system by conducting a user study on cybersickness evaluation. We used a custom-built rollercoaster VR environment developed in Unity and an HTC Vive Pro Eye headset to interact with the user. A Simulator Sickness Questionnaire was used to measure the induced sickness while gaze and heart rate data were recorded for quantitative analysis. The experimental analysis highlighted the aptness of our foveated depth-of-field effect in reducing cybersickness in virtual environments by reducing the sickness scores by approximately 66%. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:31:51Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-0867b1f6cd43444ca8a57f7f24064546 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T10:31:51Z |
| publishDate | 2021-06-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Sensors |
| spelling | doaj.art-0867b1f6cd43444ca8a57f7f240645462023-11-21T23:31:40ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202021-06-012112400610.3390/s21124006Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field BlurRazeen Hussain0Manuela Chessa1Fabio Solari2Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genoa, 16126 Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genoa, 16126 Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genoa, 16126 Genoa, ItalyCybersickness is one of the major roadblocks in the widespread adoption of mixed reality devices. Prolonged exposure to these devices, especially virtual reality devices, can cause users to feel discomfort and nausea, spoiling the immersive experience. Incorporating spatial blur in stereoscopic 3D stimuli has shown to reduce cybersickness. In this paper, we develop a technique to incorporate spatial blur in VR systems inspired by the human physiological system. The technique makes use of concepts from foveated imaging and depth-of-field. The developed technique can be applied to any eye tracker equipped VR system as a post-processing step to provide an artifact-free scene. We verify the usefulness of the proposed system by conducting a user study on cybersickness evaluation. We used a custom-built rollercoaster VR environment developed in Unity and an HTC Vive Pro Eye headset to interact with the user. A Simulator Sickness Questionnaire was used to measure the induced sickness while gaze and heart rate data were recorded for quantitative analysis. The experimental analysis highlighted the aptness of our foveated depth-of-field effect in reducing cybersickness in virtual environments by reducing the sickness scores by approximately 66%.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/12/4006cycbersicknessspatial blurdepth-of-fieldfoveationgaze-contingenteye-tracker |
| spellingShingle | Razeen Hussain Manuela Chessa Fabio Solari Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur Sensors cycbersickness spatial blur depth-of-field foveation gaze-contingent eye-tracker |
| title | Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur |
| title_full | Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur |
| title_fullStr | Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur |
| title_full_unstemmed | Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur |
| title_short | Mitigating Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Systems through Foveated Depth-of-Field Blur |
| title_sort | mitigating cybersickness in virtual reality systems through foveated depth of field blur |
| topic | cycbersickness spatial blur depth-of-field foveation gaze-contingent eye-tracker |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/21/12/4006 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT razeenhussain mitigatingcybersicknessinvirtualrealitysystemsthroughfoveateddepthoffieldblur AT manuelachessa mitigatingcybersicknessinvirtualrealitysystemsthroughfoveateddepthoffieldblur AT fabiosolari mitigatingcybersicknessinvirtualrealitysystemsthroughfoveateddepthoffieldblur |