CAREER: Measuring and Reducing Cybersickness in Virtual Reality Physical Rehabilitation

晕车(即沉浸式模拟，如虚拟现实)对健康用户的影响多年来一直是虚拟现实(VR)的基础研究领域之一，但其对肢体残疾人的影响尚不清楚，尽管它可能对这一群体基于VR的身体康复产生重大影响。该项目调查残疾人的晕车现象，特别是患有中度行动障碍和无认知障碍的多发性硬化症患者。这项研究的预期结果是将晕屏对残疾人的负面影响降至最低，从而显著提高基于VR的身体康复的有效性和运动障碍者的生活质量。本项目的第一个目标是确定衡量残疾人晕屏的最佳方法，第二个目标是找出导致残疾人晕屏的主要因素，特别是有本体感觉和平衡障碍的人(例如，由于神经、前庭、平衡问题)。根据初步数据，中心假设是，由于平衡能力和本体感觉能力的差异，与非残疾人相比，VR引发的晕屏对残疾人来说将被放大。为了验证这一假说，该项目将(A)确定残疾与虚拟现实引起的网络恶心之间的关系，(B)确定针对残疾人的虚拟现实引起的网络恶心的最有效的客观衡量标准，(C)确定影响残疾人网络恶心的虚拟现实设计的主要方面，以及(D)创建、传播和维护一个开放的数据库，其中包括残疾人的(匿名)网络恶心数据。广泛的影响：该项目将向虚拟现实普遍使用的挑战迈出关键的一步，并提供对虚拟现实作为康复媒介的有效性的更深层次的理解。该项目将影响残疾人进行基于VR的康复和锻炼的方式，这可能会对康复的有效性和疗效产生长期影响，最终影响这些人的生活质量。该项目将积极吸引研究生和本科生参与研究，将研究成果纳入关于无障碍用户界面和普遍可用性的新课程，并与各国残疾人倡导协会合作，促进基于虚拟现实的康复的教育和动机。

The effects of cybersickness (i.e., motion sickness caused by immersive simulation, such as virtual reality) on healthy users has been one of the fundamental research areas in virtual reality (VR) for many years, but its impact on persons with physical disabilities is still unknown, even though it could have a significant an impact on VR-based physical rehabilitation for this population. This project investigates cybersickness for persons with disabilities, specifically for persons with multiple sclerosis with a moderate level of mobility impairment and no cognitive impairment. The expected outcome of this research is to minimize the negative effects of cybersickness for people with disabilities, and to thereby significantly improve the effectiveness of VR-based physical rehabilitation and the quality of life for people with motor impairments.The first objective of this project is to determine the best way to measure cybersickness in people with disabilities, and the second is to then figure out the main factors that contribute to cybersickness in persons with disabilities, specifically for people with proprioceptive and balance deficits (e.g., due to neurological, vestibular, balance issues). Based on preliminary data, the central hypothesis is that VR-induced cybersickness will be magnified for persons with disabilities as compared to persons without disabilities because of differences in balance and proprioception abilities. To test this hypothesis, the project will (a) determine how disability correlates with VR-induced cybersickness, (b) determine the most effective objective measures of VR-induced cybersickness for people with disabilities, (c) determine the main contributing aspects of VR design that affect cybersickness in people with disabilities and (d) create, disseminate, and maintain an open database of (anonymized) cybersickness data from people with disabilities.Broader Impacts: The project will take a critical step towards the challenge of universal usability in VR and offer a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of VR as a medium for rehabilitation. The project will impact the way that people with disabilities are able to engage in VR-based rehabilitation and exercises, which could potentially have long term impact on the effectiveness and efficacy of the rehabilitation and ultimately the quality of life for these people. The project will actively engage graduate and undergraduate students in research, integrate results from research into a novel course on accessible user interfaces and universal usability, and collaborate with national advocacy societies for persons with disabilities to promote education and motivation for VR-based rehabilitation.