Rotation Blurring: Use of Artificial Blurring to Reduce Cybersickness in Virtual Reality First Person Shooters (1710.02599v1)

Abstract: Users of Virtual Reality (VR) systems often experience vection, the perception of self-motion in the absence of any physical movement. While vection helps to improve presence in VR, it often leads to a form of motion sickness called cybersickness. Cybersickness is a major deterrent to large scale adoption of VR. Prior work has discovered that changing vection (changing the perceived speed or moving direction) causes more severe cybersickness than steady vection (walking at a constant speed or in a constant direction). Based on this idea, we try to reduce the cybersickness caused by character movements in a First Person Shooter (FPS) game in VR. We propose Rotation Blurring (RB), uniformly blurring the screen during rotational movements to reduce cybersickness. We performed a user study to evaluate the impact of RB in reducing cybersickness. We found that the blurring technique led to an overall reduction in sickness levels of the participants and delayed its onset. Participants who experienced acute levels of cybersickness benefited significantly from this technique.

• The paper introduces Rotation Blurring, a technique that applies adaptive Gaussian blur during rotational movements to reduce cybersickness in VR FPS games.
• The methodology uses Unity3D shaders and mouse input to dynamically adjust blur intensity, ensuring smooth transitions that target only rotational discomfort.
• User studies reveal that while not statistically significant for all, individuals with acute symptoms experienced delayed onset and reduced severity of cybersickness, suggesting broad VR application potential.

Rotation Blurring: Use of Artificial Blurring to Reduce Cybersickness in Virtual Reality First Person Shooters

The paper "Rotation Blurring: Use of Artificial Blurring to Reduce Cybersickness in Virtual Reality First Person Shooters" offers insights into a novel technique aimed at addressing cybersickness—a prevalent issue in VR environments. Cybersickness impedes the widespread adoption of VR technology, particularly in high-action genres like First Person Shooter (FPS) games. The authors propose and evaluate a method called Rotation Blurring (RB), which utilizes artificial screen blurring during rotational movements to mitigate the symptoms of cybersickness.

Overview of Methodology

The technique is implemented using Unity3D shaders, leveraging mouse input as an indicator of rotational movement intensity. The amount of Gaussian blur applied is proportional to the mouse movement's acceleration, ensuring smooth transitions rather than abrupt changes between blurred and non-blurred states. This approach aims to diminish vection-induced symptoms occurring exclusively during rotational navigation without affecting head movements tracked by the Oculus Rift DK2 Head-Mounted Display (HMD).

User Study and Results

The paper includes a user paper involving FPS gameplay with 15 participants who experienced varying levels of cybersickness. Participants played two game versions: one with RB enabled and one without. Sickness levels were quantified through the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) and verbal self-reporting at two-minute intervals.

The findings reveal that RB led to a reduction in mean sickness levels and delayed the onset of symptoms. However, while the results were promising for participants who experienced acute cybersickness, the statistical significance was not robust due to mixed responses across the cohort. Notably, individuals who started with higher levels of sickness showed significant improvement when using RB. Figure 2 from the paper graphically illustrates these numerical results, offering comparative insights into TS variance with and without RB.

Implications and Future Directions

Although the paper did not achieve statistical significance for all participants, the substantial benefit observed among highly sensitive individuals suggests potential for broader applications. RB could be explored further with alternative visual effects that conserve perceived realism while reducing sickness symptoms. Future research might focus on peripheral blurring or other visual modifications that target areas susceptible to binocular motion discrepancies.

The paper's results pave the way for implementation at the software development kit (SDK) level, allowing users to choose RB as an optional feature in VR applications without necessitating code changes from game developers. This flexibility could appeal to users prone to cybersickness, ensuring a more comfortable VR experience.

Additionally, understanding the impact of RB on the presence in VR remains an area ripe for exploration. Determining the optimal blur response curve and amount of blurring that reduces discomfort without diminishing engagement could further refine the technique's efficacy.

Conclusion

This paper introduces Rotation Blurring as a feasible approach within VR environments to alleviate cybersickness, enhancing comfort and potential for increased gameplay duration. While further validation is needed, RB shows promise in offering an adaptable solution for hardware developers and users sensitive to VR-induced motion sickness. A larger cohort and further refinement of the algorithmic specifics may unlock more conclusive benefits and broader application potential in future virtual reality settings.