Reducing VR Sickness Through Peripheral Visual Effects

This paper proposes and evaluates two novel visual effects that can be applied to Virtual Reality (VR) applications to reduce VR sickness with head-mounted displays (HMD). Unlike other techniques that pursue the same goal, our approach allows a user to move continuously through a virtual environment without reducing the perceived field of view (FOV). A within-design study with 18 users compares reported sickness between the two effects and baseline. The results show lower means of sickness in the two novel effects; however, the difference is not statistically significant across all users, replicating large variety in individual reactions found in previous studies. In summary, reducing optical flow in peripheral vision is a promising approach. Future potential lies in adjusting visual effect parameters to maximize impact for large user groups.