  Despite the technological advancements in Virtual Reality (VR), users are
constantly combating feelings of nausea and disorientation, the so called
cybersickness. Cybersickness symptoms cause severe discomfort and hinder the
immersive VR experience. Here we investigated cybersickness in 360-degree
head-mounted display VR. In traditional 360-degree VR experiences,
translational movement in the real world is not reflected in the virtual world,
and therefore self-motion information is not corroborated by matching visual
and vestibular cues, which may trigger symptoms of cybersickness. We have
evaluated whether a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) software designed to
supplement the 360-degree VR experience with artificial 6-degrees-of-freedom
motion may reduce cybersickness. Explicit (simulator sickness questionnaire and
fast motion sickness rating) and implicit (heart rate) measurements were used
to evaluate cybersickness symptoms during and after 360-degree VR exposure.
Simulator sickness scores showed a significant reduction in feelings of nausea
during the AI supplemented 6-degrees-of-freedom motion VR compared to
traditional 360-degree VR. However, 6-degrees-of-freedom motion VR did not
reduce oculomotor or disorientation measures of sickness. No changes have been
observed in fast motion sickness and heart rate measures. Improving the
congruency between visual and vestibular cues in 360-degree VR, as provided by
the AI supplemented 6-degrees-of-freedom motion system considered, is essential
to provide a more engaging, immersive and safe VR, which is critical for
educational, cultural and entertainment applications.
