Sai Ho Yip¹, Adrian K. T. Ng², Henry Y. K. Lau³, Jeffrey A. Saunders¹; ¹University of Hong Kong, ²University of Bristol, ³United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority

It has been reported that rendering a virtual nose in a head-mounted display (HMD) can reduce cybersickness. A virtual nose could be a promising low-cost intervention against cybersickness. However, the only peer-reviewed and published evidence for a virtual nose effect is from a single low-powered experiment. In this study, we attempted to replicate the virtual nose effect. Subjects performed a virtual navigation task with an HMD and reported their motion sickness using the Fast Motion Sickness (FMS) scale. Two conditions, Nose-Present vs. Nose-Absent, were tested on two separate days. For the Nose-Present condition, the virtual nose had to be placed further from the natural position to ensure its visibility, as in the previous study. Potential habituation effects were controlled by counterbalancing the order of conditions. Contrary to the previous study, we did not detect a significant difference between FMS scores with and without a virtual nose, and our results suggest that any benefit was not as large as previously reported. Our results do not support the hypothesis that a virtual nose can effectively reduce cybersickness.

Acknowledgements: This research was supported by a grant from the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (GRF 17407914)