Reverse 3D Sound Flow Can Decrease VR Sickness?

One way to battle simulation sickness in virtual reality is to reduce the visual feedback of the apparent motion. In this vein, mixing in and overlaying motion trail in the reverse direction to the original motion in the virtual contents have been suggested as one such method. However, as such visual feedback can be intrusive and distractive to the original, its application must be restrained. In this poster, we consider supplementing the sickness reduction methods based on visual manipulation of the content with 3D sound effects that mimic the behavior of reverse motion flow. For instance, in a forward motion, the environment sound sources should be normally heard louder as one approaches them - here, we emulate the reverse, in hopes of eliciting and strengthening the vection nullifying effect. The pilot experiment tested of the lone effect of such “reverse” sound effect (or airflow) against the conditions of no sound or natural sound effects and revealed the positive results, indicating the potential when combined with the visual oriented approaches.