Since we are going to be talking about VR technology I guess
we should address the elephant in the room, namely the concern that VR can make
you sick. I am not going to lie and tell you it doesn’t but that also doesn’t
mean it will. This phenomenon has been known in the games industry for nearly
as long as video game have been a thing. It is known as simulation sickness.
Image from:Simulation Sickness - Causes and Cures for Game Headaches - Extra Credits
It is a sickness brought on by the brain receiving
conflicting information from its visual input and inner ear. The most familiar
form of this kind of conflict is if you have ever tried reading in a moving
vehicle. From your view point you are simply siting in a stationary chair
reading a book, but since you are in a moving vehicle your inner ear senses the
change in velocity as the vehicle speed up and slows down. This conflict of
information can bring about feelings of nausea and headaches. The same thing
happens with games but in reverse. You see characters moving on your monitor
but you yourself don’t feel the motion which brings on the same feeling of
nausea. This for traditional video game was fairly easy to avoid but VR, to work
properly, needs to confront this problem head on. These are the reasons why
it’s such a prevalent topic when it comes to the medium. There are ways to
address this problem and with more people working with VR technology the better
at it we will become in the future. To end this I will leave you with some
helpful links about simulation sickness and the world record so far for the
longest period of time spent in VR.
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