1^st International Workshop on Standardization in Cybersickness Research:
“Establishing Standards for Cybersickness Measurement and Mitigation: A Community-Driven Approach”

Date & time: Monday morning 8am-noon, 21 October 2024 at ISMAR 2024

Location: Redmond room, see ISMAR sched­ule

Join remotely using this Zoom link or check on the ISMAR web­site for updates (con­tact us if you don’t receive it).

Catering to a diverse audi­ence and facil­i­tat­ing in-depth dis­cus­sions, the work­shop will fea­ture break­out ses­sions focused on spe­cific areas of inter­est within cyber­sick­ness research. Participants can choose the ses­sion that aligns most closely with their exper­tise and inter­ests. The break­out ses­sions will cover the fol­low­ing key research issues (depend­ing on the number of par­tic­i­pants and their interests):

• Measurement and Metrics: Defining stan­dard­ized met­rics for quan­ti­fy­ing cyber­sick­ness, explor­ing the strengths and weak­nesses of sub­jec­tive vs. objec­tive mea­sures and exist­ing ques­tion­naires and exist­ing ques­tion­naires, and dis­cussing the chal­lenges of ensur­ing con­sis­tency and com­pa­ra­bil­ity across dif­fer­ent stud­ies and systems.
• Mitigation Strategies and Best Practices: Evaluating the effec­tive­ness of var­i­ous cyber­sick­ness cyber­sick­ness mit­i­ga­tion tech­niques, from hard­ware and soft­ware opti­miza­tions to user adap­ta­tion and poten­tial (non)pharmaceutical inter­ven­tions, and iden­ti­fy­ing best prac­tices for inte­grat­ing these strate­gies into VR experiences.
• User Experience and Individual Differences: Understanding the impact of cyber­sick­ness on user expe­ri­ence, explor­ing indi­vid­ual dif­fer­ences in sus­cep­ti­bil­ity, and dis­cussing strate­gies for design­ing inclu­sive and acces­si­ble VR experiences.
• Emerging Technologies and Future Directions: Investigating the poten­tial of new tech­nolo­gies like eye-tracking, haptic feed­back, and AI in mit­i­gat­ing cyber­sick­ness, while also iden­ti­fy­ing future chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties as while also iden­ti­fy­ing future chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties as  VR tech­nol­ogy con­tin­ues to con­tin­ues to evolve.
• Challenges and Opportunities in Standardization: Identifying key obsta­cles to estab­lish­ing stan­dard­ized approaches, explor­ing strate­gies for build­ing con­sen­sus, and out­lin­ing the poten­tial ben­e­fits of stan­dard­iza­tion for research, devel­op­ment, user safety, and eth­i­cal con­sid­er­a­tions, and eth­i­cal considerations.
• Using and Adapting the VR Sickness Benchmark: Discussing the appli­ca­tions of a novel open source VR sick­ness bench­mark system for assess­ing and com­par­ing VR experiences„mitigation tech­niques and con­tribut­ing fac­tors and con­tribut­ing fac­tors, as well as explor­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for its fur­ther devel­op­ment and validation.

Cybersickness remains a major obsta­cle to the wider adop­tion and effec­tive uti­liza­tion of VR tech­nol­ogy. By address­ing this crit­i­cal issue, the work­shop con­tributes to the advance­ment of VR research and devel­op­ment, ulti­mately improv­ing the user expe­ri­ence and expand­ing the poten­tial appli­ca­tions of VR in var­i­ous domains, includ­ing enter­tain­ment, edu­ca­tion, health­care, and industry.

Workshop organizers

• Bernhard E. Riecke, Simon Fraser University
• Ernst Kruijff, Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg
• Behrang Keshavarz, KITE Research Institute (UHN) / Toronto Metropolitan University
• Rose Rouhani, Simon Fraser University

Thanks for addi­tional help & sup­port by Kenneth Karthik and Katharina Pöhlmann

Workshop paper

Draft agenda

The work­shop will be con­ducted in a hybrid format, accom­mo­dat­ing both in-person and vir­tual attendees.

8:00 AM - 8:20 AM: Opening Session (Plenary)

• Welcome and Introduction
• Overview of Workshop Agenda and Logistics

8:20 AM - 8:50 AM: Keynote Presentation

by Stephen Palmisano on “The impor­tance of repli­ca­tion when inves­ti­gat­ing the ori­gins of cybersickness.”

Biography: Stephen Palmisano is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Wollongong in Australia.  He is inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized as an expert on illu­sions of self-motion and motion sick­ness — with over 30 years expe­ri­ence study­ing both phe­nom­ena.  Stephen was awarded his PhD (on visual self-motion per­cep­tion) from the University of New South Wales in 1997.  He then worked for sev­eral years on stereo­scopic vision and mul­ti­sen­sory per­cep­tions of self-orientation at York University in Canada.  On his return to Australia, Stephen estab­lished his Perception and Action Laboratory (PAL) in 2000.  Over the years, PAL has devel­oped, men­tored, and hosted, many high pro­file per­cep­tion and vir­tual real­ity (VR) researchers.  Most of the research in PAL is cur­rently focused on under­stand­ing the cyber­sick­ness caused by head-mounted dis­plays (HMDs).  As a keen gamer, Stephen is par­tic­u­larly inter­ested in the sick­ness expe­ri­enced when play­ing video games in HMD VR.  He is cur­rently an edi­to­r­ial board member for the jour­nal Vision, and an asso­ciate editor for the jour­nal Frontiers in Virtual Reality.

8:50 AM - 9:00 AM: VR Sickness Benchmark System

• Brief Overview: Introduction to a novel VR sick­ness bench­mark system, posi­tion­ing it as one tool among many for mea­sur­ing and mit­i­gat­ing VR sick­ness (with a quick demo if pos­si­ble, see our after­noon Cybersickness Benchmarking Tutorial for a in-depth overview and demo)

9:00 AM - 9:40 AM: Lightning Talks

• 5-minute pre­sen­ta­tions by par­tic­i­pants show­cas­ing their research, tools, or ideas related to the work­shop foci. See call for light­ing talks below

9:40 AM - 10:30 AM: Networking, Demo & Unconference Session

• Networking: Informal dis­cus­sions, exchange of con­tact infor­ma­tion, and poten­tial collaborations.
• Demos: Participants show­case their work, includ­ing the VR sick­ness bench­mark system.
• Unconference: Participant-led dis­cus­sions on self-organized topics.

10:30 AM - 11:10 AM: Interactive Sessions (Breakout Groups)

• Participants self-select into groups based on their inter­ests, focus­ing on one of the fol­low­ing topics:
  • Measurement and Metrics
  • Mitigation Strategies and Best Practices
  • User Experience and Individual Differences
  • Emerging Technologies and Future Directions
  • Challenges and Opportunities in cyber­sick­ness Standardization
  • Using and Adapting the VR Sickness Benchmark
• Note: The work­shop includ­ing the break­out ses­sions will be orga­nized using an online white­board (Miro) to stream­line work­shop orga­ni­za­tion, dis­cus­sion and pre­sen­ta­tion of results. Each break­out group will have a des­ig­nated mod­er­a­tor and select a note-taker/presenter.

11:10 AM - 12:00 PM: Synthesis Session (Plenary)

• Breakout group reports: Each group presents a sum­mary of their key find­ings, insights, and recommendations.
• Open dis­cus­sion and Q&A: Broader con­ver­sa­tion about the work­shop themes and emerg­ing ideas, inte­grat­ing insights from the uncon­fer­ence session.
• Closing Remarks: Summary of key take­aways and next steps, empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion and com­mu­nity building.

Interested in using/adapting the VR bench­mark system? Please feel free to con­tact Bernhard Riecke at ber1@sfu.ca if you’re inter­ested in get­ting early access to the VR bench­mark system and data analy­sis toolkit (see http://ispace.iat.sfu.ca/project/vr-sickness-benchmark/) for your research, and poten­tially con­tribut­ing to a joint review paper.

Call for Lightning Talks at ISMAR 2024: Establishing Standards for Cybersickness Measurement and Mitigation: A Community-Driven Approach

Share Your Insights and Shape the Future of Cybersickness Research!

We invite researchers, devel­op­ers, and prac­ti­tion­ers to submit pro­pos­als for light­ning talks (5 min­utes) at the upcom­ing work­shop, “Establishing Standards for Cybersickness Measurement and Mitigation: A Community-Driven Approach,” at ISMAR 2024.

Topics of Interest:

Lightning talks should address one or more of the fol­low­ing key research areas:

• Measurement and Metrics: How can we define and stan­dard­ize objec­tive and sub­jec­tive mea­sures for quan­ti­fy­ing cybersickness?
• Mitigation Strategies: What are the most effec­tive hard­ware, soft­ware, and behav­ioral tech­niques for reduc­ing cybersickness?
• User Experience: How does cyber­sick­ness impact user expe­ri­ence, and how can we design more com­fort­able and acces­si­ble VR environments?
• Individual Differences: What fac­tors con­tribute to indi­vid­ual vari­a­tions in sus­cep­ti­bil­ity to cyber­sick­ness, and how can we per­son­al­ize mit­i­ga­tion strategies?
• Emerging Technologies: How can new tech­nolo­gies like eye-tracking, haptic feed­back, and AI be lever­aged to address cybersickness?
• Standardization Challenges and Opportunities: What are the key obsta­cles and poten­tial ben­e­fits of estab­lish­ing stan­dard­ized approaches for cyber­sick­ness assess­ment and mitigation?
• The VR Sickness Benchmark: How can this tool be uti­lized or adapted to advance research and devel­op­ment in this field?

Submission Guidelines:

• Please submit a title and brief abstract (max. 250 words) out­lin­ing your pro­posed light­ning talk using this form.
• Clearly indi­cate which topic(s) of inter­est (see pre­vi­ous list) your talk will address.
• The dead­line for sub­mis­sion is September 2, 2024.
• Selected pre­sen­ters will be noti­fied by September 9,2024.

Note: Talk abstracts will be pub­lished on our work­shop web­site, but will not be pub­lished in the IEEE Digital Library.

Why Participate:

• Share your research and insights with a diverse audi­ence of experts and stakeholders.
• Contribute to the devel­op­ment of stan­dard­ized approaches for cyber­sick­ness assess­ment and mitigation.
• Network with col­leagues and poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tors in the field.
• Help shape the future of VR well-being and user experience.

We look for­ward to receiv­ing your sub­mis­sions and engag­ing in a pro­duc­tive dis­cus­sion at the workshop.

Call for Demos at ISMAR 2024: Establishing Standards for Cybersickness Measurement and Mitigation: A Community-Driven Approach

Showcase Your Work, Spark Collaboration, and Drive Innovation!

As part of the upcom­ing “Establishing Standards for Cybersickness Measurement and Mitigation: A Community-Driven Approach” at ISMAR 2024, we invite you to submit a demo for our ded­i­cated “Networking, Demo & Unconference Session” (see draft sched­ule above). This is your chance to infor­mally share your inno­v­a­tive research, tools, or expe­ri­ences related to cyber­sick­ness mea­sure­ment, mit­i­ga­tion, or user experience.

We welcome a wide range of demo formats, including:

• Full VR demos: Immersive expe­ri­ences show­cas­ing your latest VR tech­nol­ogy or research findings.
• Interactive demos: Hands-on demon­stra­tions of tools, soft­ware, or hard­ware related to cybersickness.
• Video demos: Concise video pre­sen­ta­tions of your work, ideal for vir­tual participants.

Whether you’re a researcher, devel­oper, or pro­fes­sional inter­ested in VR well-being, we encour­age you to share your work and con­tribute to the con­ver­sa­tion. Your demo could spark new ideas, foster col­lab­o­ra­tion, and drive inno­va­tion in the field of cyber­sick­ness standardization.

Submission Guidelines:

• Please submit a brief descrip­tion of your demo (max. 250 words) out­lin­ing its pur­pose, key fea­tures, and rel­e­vance to the work­shop themes using this form. Please include visuals.
• Include your pre­ferred demo format (full VR, inter­ac­tive, or video) and any tech­ni­cal requirements.
• If your demo requires spe­cific equip­ment or soft­ware, please ensure that you can provide/organize it yourself.
• Selected demos will be show­cased during the “Networking, Demo & Unconference Session” at the workshop.

Note: Demo abstracts will be pub­lished on our work­shop web­site, but will not be pub­lished in the IEEE Digital Library.

Why Participate:

• Showcase your work: Gain vis­i­bil­ity for your research or devel­op­ment efforts.
• Receive feed­back: Get valu­able insights from fellow researchers and experts in the field.
• Connect and col­lab­o­rate: Network with poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tors and expert partners.
• Contribute to inno­va­tion: Help drive progress in cyber­sick­ness standardization.

Don’t miss this oppor­tu­nity to share your exper­tise and con­tribute to a vibrant com­mu­nity work­ing towards a safer and more com­fort­able VR expe­ri­ence for all.

• The dead­line for sub­mis­sion is September 2, 2024.
• Selected demo pre­sen­ters will be noti­fied by September 9, 2024.

We look for­ward to seeing your excit­ing demos!