Output details
34 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
Loughborough University
Characteristics of habituation to motion in a virtual environment
It is known from our research at Loughborough Design School and research elsewhere that the visually-induced feeling of motion (‘vection’) can give rise to symptoms like those of true motion sickness. This can be a problem for designers as well as artists such as film-makers. True motion sickness can generally be alleviated by repeatedly exposing a person to the nauseogenic stimulus, and this paper, from research funded by EPSRC, was the first to show and characterise the similar habituation that occurs with vection. The importance of this finding is in the context of people suffering from side–effects whilst viewing moving stimuli, such as driving / flight simulators and computer games, in that it shows that these symptoms will decrease over time. Understanding of the causality between 3D movie or picture parameters and health problems directly feeds in to improved design of 3D displays (e.g. TVs, PCs or projectors).
This paper is the second in a series which aims to provide specific guidance to product designers, film-makers, cinematographers and software/games designers and provides an understanding of the physiological problems that may be encountered. Research has continued to provide specific information about the way in which people can adapt to some stimuli, and also what designers should avoid.
