Objective Assessment of Cybersickness in a Stationary Helicopter Simulator Using Pupil Diameter as a Quantitative Indicator

Motion sickness (MS), particularly the type triggered by visual cues known as visually induced motion sickness (VIMS), occurs due to conflicting sensory signals and can arise from various visual devices like video games, VR, and simulators. Termed cybersickness in virtual environments, it can negatively impact health, simulator effectiveness, and VR training outcomes. Detecting and quantifying MS is essential for developing countermeasures. Existing research on cybersickness, particularly its relationship with physiological responses like pupil diameter (PD), has yielded inconsistent findings. This study focuses on cybersickness in a stationary helicopter simulator, using PD as a measure. It investigates how different weather conditions (clear vs. stormy) affect cybersickness, measured by the simulator sickness questionnaire (SSQ), and examines the correlation between SSQ scores and PD changes. The findings show a significant increase in SSQ total score from clear to stormy weather conditions. The results also suggest a trend of increased pupil diameter over time in stormy conditions with a slight significance.