Gender Differences in Simulation Sickness in Static vs. Moving Platform VR Automated Driving Simulation

摘要

Simulation sickness is a condition of physiological discomfort felt during or after exposure to any virtual environment. An immersive virtual environment can be accessed through a head mounted display, which provides the user with an entrance to the virtual world. The onset of simulation sickness is one of the main disadvantages of virtual reality (VR) systems. The study presented in this paper aims to expand the knowledge on how gender affects simulation sickness in an innovative VR driving environment. A between-subjects design (n = 62) was conducted to investigate the effect of gender and motion on simulation sickness and physiological responses induced by a fully automated urban virtual driving simulation. The results showed that women significantly experienced more simulation sickness while using the driving simulation compared to men. Furthermore, there was no significant difference between the static and moving platform conditions regarding simulation sickness onset. These findings indicate that there is a real separation of how much simulation sickness has an effect on the users depending on their gender. Therefore, female users should be more cautious while using an automated VR driving simulations with a moving platform.