The United States Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory Virtual Reality Vection System
Abstract
The present report describes and documents the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory Virtual Reality Vection System (VRVS), a versatile, inexpensive tool to investigate, demonstrate, and characterize vection as a representative example of or type of spatial disorientation (SD). In aviation, SD refers to a pilot's failure to correctly sense the position, motion, and/or attitude of the aircraft with respect to the fixed coordinate system the Earth'37s surface and its gravitational vertical. That is, SD refers to the potentially catastrophic situation in which a pilot does not know where the aircraft is heading relative to the surface of the Earth. One example of SD is vection, which is the illusion of self-motion in an individual who is not moving. Since vection is a form of SD that can be reliably generated under controlled laboratory conditions, it is a convenient SD example for demonstrations as well as a powerful tool to study and characterize SD and its effects in general. The VRVS as described includes its components, software, hardware, and user interfaces. Tests and evaluations, conducted while creating the VRVS and reported here, demonstrate that the system does reliably provoke vection and thus SD. The VRVS includes two complementary methods for quantifying the presence and magnitude of vection. Moreover, the VRVS enables the simultaneous measurement of vection and symptoms of cybersickness, such as nausea.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 02, 2024
- Accession Number
- AD1228334
Entities
People
- Leonard Temme
- Ryan Nagy
Organizations
- United States Army