VR gamers can experience ‘ludicrous speed’ without motion sickness

A team of human-computer interaction specialists from the UK and Canada are said to have developed the first system to manage motion sickness in VR which also allows users to feel like they’re moving much faster or much slower than the vehicle they are travelling in. 

Their results suggest that controlling travellers’ perceptions of speed in virtual reality can provide experiences that could make games more exciting, or make it easier to focus on tasks like reading or working, while mitigating the potential for motion sickness.

Motion sickness is caused by a mismatch between the physical motion sensed by a person’s vestibular system and what is in front of their eyes. If the feeling of movement doesn’t match up to the perception of movement, it can make some people feel unwell very quickly. 

Some VR systems promise to reduce or eliminate motion sickness during travel by matching the physical movements of the vehicle to the perceived movement inside the headset.