The VR Effects Laboratory has been formed to explore the physiological and psychological effects of virtual interfaces on the users of this technology.
Current research focuses on simulator sickness, adaptation, and presence.
Motion sickness consists of those symptoms which would occur in a simulator even if the simulation was a perfect representation of an environment. Here, the cues that provoke sickness come from the accurate simulation of a provocative environment. Interface sickness consists of those symptoms which result from limitations of the simulator to accurately simulate an environment. In either case, this lack of fidelity in the simulation of an environment may be the primary source of some sickness symptoms. As technology improves, it is expected that the part of simulator sickness due to motion sickness will increase, and the part due to interface sickness will eventually decrease.