10:30 - 12:00
Tue-H5-Talk 5--49
Tue-Talk 5
Room: H5
Chair/s:
Mark Vollrath
Comparing Simulation Sickness and Presence in Car, Bicycle, and Pedestrian Simulators
Tue-H5-Talk 5-4904
Presented by: Melina Bergen
Melina Bergen
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
Due to their cost-efficient and safe testing characteristics, simulators play an important part in traffic research. Simulator studies allow for precise control over variables and confounding factors. A central aspect of these studies is the generation of realistic behavior from participants. Achieving a feeling of presence in a virtual environment is considered an important factor for natural behavior. However, simulator sickness, a common side effect among simulator users, poses a significant challenge. Nausea and disorientation can lead to unnatural behaviors, which can impact the validity of the research findings, or even cause participants to drop out. In order to be able to create scenarios and simulator settings that minimize simulator sickness and maximize the feeling of presence, we need to gain a better understanding of factors that influence the feeling of presence and simulation sickness and the relation between the two. This presentation will present presence (PQ) and simulator sickness (SSQ) questionnaire results from four different studies utilizing various traffic simulators, including pedestrian, bike, and car simulators with a VR headset or display setup. The results show the lowest SSQ scores in a setup with displays instead of VR headset. A dependency of the study task was revealed, showing that more dynamic movements are related to more simulator sickness. Regarding the presence questionnaire no influence of the simulator type or the study design could be found. However, a correlation between the SSQ score and the PQ can be shown, indicating that higher SSQ scores are associated with lower PQ scores.
Keywords: Simulator Sickness, Presence, VR, Traffic Simulation