Eye movement has been considered as an important factor to influence the Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS). Two experiments were conducted in this thesis. The first experiment focused on the presence of eye movements (i.e., with and without eye fixation). Factorial combinations of two speed levels of visual motion and two levels of eye fixation (with and without) were examined. Result showed that the presence of the eye movement significantly increased the levels of VIMS (p...[ Read more ]

Eye movement has been considered as an important factor to influence the Visually Induced Motion Sickness (VIMS). Two experiments were conducted in this thesis. The first experiment focused on the presence of eye movements (i.e., with and without eye fixation). Factorial combinations of two speed levels of visual motion and two levels of eye fixation (with and without) were examined. Result showed that the presence of the eye movement significantly increased the levels of VIMS (p<0.005). Also, the speed of the visual motion had a significant effect on the levels of VIMS (p<0.005). Visual stimuli rotating at 61.5 degree per second (dps) evoked larger levels of VIMS than at 6.8 dps. The interactions between the effects of eye movements and the effects of visual motion speed are discussed. The second experiment was a following up study on two properties associated with eye fixation: (i) zero foveal retinal slip velocity and (ii) zero eye movement velocity. Three conditions were studied: (i) both foveal retinal slip velocity and eye movement velocity were zero; (ii) zero foveal retinal slip velocity with eyes following a marker moving at 34 dps; and (iii) both foveal slip velocity and eye movement velocity were non-zero and following pattern rotating at 34 dps. Result showed that changing the velocity of the eye movement significantly affected the evoked VIMS (p<0.05), while changing the velocity of the foveal retinal slip did not significantly affect levels of VIMS (p>0.05). Thus the zero eye movement velocity rather than zero foveal slip velocity is considered to be a key factor in reducing levels of VIMS.