Effects of Posture and Locomotion Methods on Postural Stability, Cybersickness, and Presence in a Virtual Environment

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) users experience unwanted symptoms, such as body imbalance, nausea, dizziness, and loss of presence. This study aims to investigate the effects of posture and locomotion on postural stability, cybersickness, and presence in VR environments. Twenty participants played a VR game under different conditions depending on posture (standing and sitting) and locomotion methods (joystick and teleportation), and seven dependent variables (COM, AP displacement, ML displacement, ASL, PSQ, VRSQ, and SOP) were analyzed to observe postural stability, cybersickness, and presence. The results revealed that postural instability increased when the task was performed in the standing posture with the joystick locomotion method compared to other conditions. The AP displacement, ML displacement, and ASL were lower under teleportation conditions. The PSQ scores indicated that postural stability was better in the sitting posture than in the standing posture. The VRSQ score revealed that the sitting with teleportation condition had less cybersickness than the other conditions. The SOP score was the highest in the standing posture with the teleportation condition. This study concludes that a sitting posture with teleportation locomotion can be considered when designing games in which users actively interact with virtual movements.