Uma Abordagem para Análise e Monitoramento de Simulator Sickness em Ambientes de Realidade Virtual

Abstract

Despite the recent advances in Virtual Reality Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) and the release of several of these devices in the international market, many challenges still persist to introduce this technology to the public in a safe way, mainly due to adverse physiological effects that those devices can cause such as: discomfort, vertigo, visual fatigue and more commonly nausea, symptoms of an effect known as Simulator Sickness. The goal of this dissertation is to present a system of analysis and monitoring of Simulator Sickness that could help in the development of safer and more ergonomic virtual reality applications, essential characteristics for the insertion of technology to the general public. The SSA (Simulator Sickness Analyzer) operates in real-time by presenting the estimated level of motion caused by the application and using a mathematical-computational Simulator Sickness model based on the RST theory. The tool offers functionalities that allow a better understanding, in production time, of the immersive experience of the final user. To validate the model and the system an experiment was carried out with six participants who tested 5 virtual environments in addition to answering a questionnaire to identify effects of Simulator Sickness. The results obtained confirmed the predictions of the theoretical models adopted by the computational model as well as indicate the ability of the tool to identify environments that have high potential to generate symptoms associated with Simulator Sickness.