An “Independent Visual Background” reduced balance disturbance evoked by visual scene motion: Implication for alleviating simulator sickness

Simulator sickness (SS) / virtual environment (VE) sickness is expected to become increasingly troublesome as VE technology evolves [20]. Procedures to alleviate SS / VE sickness have been of limited value [12]. This paper investigated a possible procedure to reduce SS and VE sickness. Postural disturbance was evoked by visual scene motion at different frequencies. Differences in disturbance were examined as a function of simultaneous exposure to an “independent visual background” (IVB). Eight subjects were tested at two scene motion frequencies and three different IVB conditions using a within-subjects design. An expected statistically significant interaction between IVB condition and frequency was observed. For low frequency scene movements, subjects exhibited less balance disturbance when the IVB was presented. We suggest that an IVB may alleviate disturbance when conflicting visual and inertial cues are likely to result in simulator or VE sickness.