Maryam Kameli proposes VR technique to limit cybersickness and improve spatial awareness
Department of Computer Science & Engineering (CS&E) PhD student Maryam Kameli is working on a new virtual reality (VR) locomotion method that aims to enhance spatial awareness while limiting cybersickness. Under the guidance of her PhD advisor, Professor Victoria Interrante, Kameli’s Non-Photorealistic Rendering (NPR) technique uses a black and white, sketch style design while VR users are moving between places in the virtual environment.
“My project examined which locomotion methods in a VR environment has the benefits of spatial awareness and avoids making someone cybersick,” Kameli said. “This type of work is important because it can make VR more accessible to all people and hopefully in turn expand VR’s uses in day-to-day life.”
The idea for the NPR method came from architecture design. Architects can bring their sketch designs to life in VR and show them to clients to get a better picture of the final product. Using a sketch rather than full detail renderings can help the clients adjust to the space and avoid cybersickness. Kameli’s method uses this sketch style design while VR users are in motion and returns to full rendering while users are still so they can take in the full details of their surroundings.
To test this technique, Kameli set up a 36-person user study where users navigated a guided tour in a virtual museum and tried out three different locomotion methods - full color detail, jumping teleportation, and the NPR method. The study measured the user’s distance estimation, memory of the museum map, and cybersickness while using each method. Their hope was that the NPR would provide the best of both worlds, avoiding cybersickness while maintaining spatial awareness.
The study found that the full color detail setting had the best spatial understanding overall, but had the most cybersickness. The jumping teleportation had the least cybersickness, but worse spatial understanding. As predicted, the NPR method fell right in the middle with adequate spatial understanding and less cyber sickness.
“In architectural exploration, it is important that users are able to spend time in the VR environment, so it is important that we find ways to avoid cybersickness,” Kameli said. “Our proposed method helped people stay in the environment long enough and explore more. We wanted to find a middle ground where users could have better spatial awareness while limiting cyber sickness.”
Moving forward, Kameli hopes to continue to find ways to limit cybersickness in VR spaces, as well as explore how to make human avatars more realistic in virtual environments. As she continues her PhD work, the new space in Shepherd Labs has helped increase collaboration and potential research directions.
“Shepherd Lab has a shared space with a bunch of VR headsets and it is a great place to run our studies. It is so great that we can see our colleagues and learn from each other’s research in one collaborative space. It helps us all feel more connected.”
Learn more about Kameli’s work at her LinkedIn page.