Research on Cybersickness Mitigation Using Peripheral Vision Display Technology

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Cybersickness is a critical barrier to the widespread adoption and long-term use of Virtual Reality (VR). Specifically, symptoms experienced during immersive content or complex interactive environments not only degrade the user experience but also impose substantial limitations on the practical usability and commercialization of VR systems. A widely studied mitigation strategy is dynamic field-of-view (FOV) restriction, which reduces symptoms by occluding peripheral vision. However, this approach inherently introduces a noticeable visual blockage, which severely undermines presence—an essential component of immersion—and can intensify negative experiences during extended VR exposure. To address these limitations, we propose two alternative approaches that attenuate, rather than fully occlude, peripheral visual information. First, peripheral brightness reduction reduces luminance contrast while preserving high-frequency details, thereby alleviating peripheral stimulation through a method that has not yet been systematically investigated. Second, peripheral resolution reduction extends prior foveated rendering techniques by deliberately degrading fine details while retaining low-frequency structures, thus reducing visual load in the periphery. Importantly, both methods differ fundamentally from traditional FOV restriction in that they rely on attenuation rather than occlusion of visual information. In Experiment 1, we systematically varied the levels of brightness and resolution reduction to identify the optimal parameter settings for mitigating cybersickness. In Experiment 2, these optimal conditions were validated with 50 participants. To ensure robust evaluation, we employed both subjective measures (cybersickness ratings, Simulator Sickness Questionnaire, presence, and user preference) and objective physiological data (electrodermal activity), and compared the results against both the Original (baseline) and dynamic FOV restriction conditions. This multifaceted evaluation enabled a rigorous quantitative comparison of the proposed methods with conventional approaches. The results demonstrated that peripheral brightness reduction significantly reduced cybersickness relative to baseline, with effectiveness comparable to—or exceeding—that of FOV restriction. Moreover, presence and user preference under brightness reduction remained comparable to baseline and were statistically higher than under FOV restriction. By contrast, peripheral resolution reduction also mitigated cybersickness but produced a marked decline in presence. Taken together, these findings highlight that peripheral visual saliency attenuation via brightness reduction provides a simple yet powerful means of reducing cybersickness without compromising user presence. This suggests a promising alternative to traditional FOV restriction and offers both academic and practical significance. Furthermore, the approach may be extended to VR system design and diverse application domains such as education, training, and healthcare, providing a user-friendly and sustainable solution for mitigating cybersickness.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• 1. Introduction 1
• 2. Related Work 3
• 1) Causes of Cybersickness and Peripheral Visual Modulation Technology 3
• 2) Dynamic FOV Restriction 3
• 3) Other Peripheral Visual Modulation Techniques 4
• 3. General Methods 6
• 1) Experimental Setup 6
• 2) Peripheral Vision Modulation 7
• (1) Dynamic FOV Restriction 7
• (2) Peripheral Brightness Reduction 8
• (3) Peripheral Resolution Reduction 9
• 4. Experiment 1 10
• 1) Stimuli 10
• 2) Experiment Design 11
• 3) Participants 12
• 4) Subjective Measurement 13
• 5) Procedure 13
• 6) Results 13
• 5. Experiment 2 17
• 1) Stimuli 17
• 2) Experiment Design 18
• 3) Participants 19
• 4) Subjective Measurement 19
• 5) Objective Measurement 20
• 6) Procedure 21
• 7) Results 21
• (1) Cybersickness, Preference, Presence 21
• (2) Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) 25
• (3) Physiological Signals (EDA) 29
• 6. Discussion 33
• 1) Experiment 1 33
• 2) Experiment 2: Peripheral Brightness Reduction 33
• 3) Experiment 2: Peripheral Resolution Reduction 34
• 4) Limitations & Future Work 35
• 7. Conclusion 37
• 8. References 38
• Table Contents
• Table 1. Video contents used in Pilot Test 1 11
• Table 2. Results for the PBR and PRR conditions 14
• Table 3. Video contents used in Pilot Test 2 18
• Table 4. Correlation analysis results for cybersickness, preference, and presence 23
• Table 5. Correlation analysis results for the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) 27
• Table 6. Correlation analysis results for electrodermal activity (EDA) 30