If there is one particular aspect which holds back global VR adoption, it is the motion sickness aspect. Hundreds of people suffer from motion sickness while wearing a VR headset, regardless of which app or game they are looking at. There is no point in buying expensive entertainment hardware when it makes you nauseous first and foremost. Our human mind is not accustomed to moving into a virtual world where nothing we see is actually there. Thankfully, it seems there may be a cure on the horizon for VR motion sickness.
Can we Cure VR Motion Sickness?
It is evident there is a growing need for VR headsets which do not make people nauseous. Unfortunately, that is much easier said than done, as it is not just up to hardware manufacturers to successfully reduce motion sickness. While some big progress has been made in this regard, up to 40% of VR users still experience motion sickness to this very day. It is an astonishingly worrisome number and one that needs to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Coming up with simulator sickness solutions is not as straightforward as one might think. The hardware side of things has seen some big improvements, with most of the headsets becoming far better at reducing nausea for its users. If the game or app itself isn’t up to par, however, it is evident even the best hardware will not be able to counter this problem altogether. A new technology developed by MONKEYmedia may finally resolve this problem once and for all. That is, assuming manufacturers and developers are willing to support this new solution.
To put this into perspective, MONKEYmedia has high hopes for the BodyNav software. It aims to solve VR motion sickness by decoupling the three axes of movement from the visual plane. Using hands to navigate in a VR environment will be replaced by leaning their head or torso in the direction of movement. It may take some time to get used to this new method, though, but it does mimic the way we move in the real world as well. No one in the real world moves by just turning their head, as the rest of your body will adjust itself accordingly.
To accompany the BodyNav software, there is also a hardware component in place to track the positions or the joints in our body. Any small shift in the way we stand, look, or move will effectively mimic the movement in virtual reality. This approach is rather unique and nature, and it remains to be seen if this solution will effectively be incorporated in most VR offerings moving forward. Its natural feel and no further requirements for additional controllers or joysticks certainly make BodyNav an option worth looking into.
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