Virtual Reality (VR) technology immerses users in a three-dimensional virtual environment. The use of VR technology, through Head Mounted Displays (HMDs), is predicted to increase exponentially in the near future. However, there are usability issues with VR that may inhibit this. One issue is the negative, unwanted symptoms that some user experience when in VR. These symptoms include nausea, dizziness, disorientation and headaches and are collectively called Cybersickness. Cybersickness is related to classical motion sickness and simulator sickness. It is a polysymptomatic, multiphasic ailment that affects up to 80 percent of first-time VR HMD users. There has been modest success in the development of techniques to minimize cybersickness. However, effective strategies of completely preventing cyber- sickness remain unclear. A significant problem is the lack of standardized methods for capturing accurate measurements of cybersickness.

We conducted a thorough investigation into how to measure and minimize cybersickness. We focused on analyzing relevant factors and conducting a cognitive engineering analysis to inform the development of a potential solution. We then developed a physical dial interface to accurately capture momentary user cybersickness and feed this information back to the user. We added an additional layer to the system, consisting of sensory warnings to encourage the user to take well-timed breaks and habituate to VR. We tested the system with 36 participants in a seated roller-coaster VR environment.

Our main findings from the experiment were firstly, the physical dial measurement of cybersickness significantly positively correlates to post-exposure questionnaire scores. Secondly, the physical dial had more significant correlations with post-exposure questionnaires than a Verbal measuring technique, the Fast Motion sickness Scale (FMS). Lastly, we found that a visual warning is reacted to more quickly than an auditory warning. The key contribution of this study is the evidence of the physical dial being an appropriate reporting and measuring tool for cybersickness during VR experiences.