From: Toni Emerson <"temerson"@hitl.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: HUMAN-FACTORS: Long term immersion in VR
Date: Mon, 01 Jul 1996 10:49:49 -0700
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab


JMELZER wrote:

> long term effects due to immersion in large projection-type
> simulators.  These people have studied this area for many years. You
> might try the Air Force people at Wright-Patterson AFB, or some of the
> Navy people who work in simulation.

Regarding flight simulator research,  I have found:

Kennedy, R.S., Fowlkes, J.E. and Lilienthal, M.G. (1993).  Postural
and Performance Changes Following Exposures to Flight Simulators.
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, pp. 912-920.

The data was collected as part of a survey of Navy and Marine Corps
simulators.  Pilots were studied for postural stability and
disequilibrium effects: walking tests, standing steadiness, steps
walking, The time immersed was 1-4 hours.

The conclusion on pp. 917 is :

"It is our opinion that very long exposures, such as may be
experienced in long-term (>4h) mission rehearsal systems, may be
particularly vulnerable to these effects."

Kennedy et al. also cite another study:

"Kennedy and Fowlkes ... have shown that as much as 25% of the
variance in simulator sickness can be attributed to hop length and
this effect, to a large extent, is independent of other equipment and
usage requirements."

Kennedy, R.S. and Fowlkes, J.E.  (1990). Simulator Sickness is
Polygenic and Polysymptomatic: Implications for Research.  In
Proceedings of IMAGE V Conference, Tempe, AZ: Image Society,
pp. 45-59.


This still leaves me with the burning question.  Is there a scholarly
research that addresses the issue of long term immersion and the side
effects of wearing a HMD that long?  Is there a published study on
long term immersion in a virtual environment?

-- 
Toni C. Emerson                    Human Interface Technology Laboratory
Dir. of Information Services                    Moderator,  sci.virtual-worlds
University of Washington, Box 352142          Seattle, WA  98195-2412
Tel: 206-616-1423  Fax:206-543-5380  Email: temerson@hitl.washington.edu
URL: http://www.hitl.washington.edu/people/diderot/