Evaluating Factors Affecting Virtual Reality Display

Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) anecdotally exhibit a higher rate of cybersickness, motion-sickness like symptoms due to visual stimuli, than virtual reality systems that employ large screens. Yet, there have been relatively few multi-display studies, and frequently factors other than the display varied between conditions. We controlled for these additional factors in three experiments which considered HMDs weight, perceived screen size, and rendering mode. The HMD weight experiment had no effect on cybersickness, with p < 0.88. This is of benefit to HMD developers as it signifies that additional weight in the hardware is not cause for concern. While screen size and field of view (FOV) are often used interchangeably, the FOV has a strong effect independent of screen size. The perceived screen size experiment had no effect on cybersickness, with p < 0.66. This benefits cybersickness researchers, as it signifies that the results from monitor experiments can be compared directly with the results from large screen experiments, assuming the remaining factors are held constant. The rendering experiment, with stereo and mono rendering, had no effect on cybersickness, with p = 0.22. Since the HMD weight and screen size experiments used the same FOV, application, and navigation paradigm, they were compared for possible effects. Initially, we found a significant effect on cybersickness. After normalizing using the average change when a part of the real world is seen, such as in large screens, there is no longer a statistical difference (p < 0.77).