This study investigates how varying sensory inputs—visual, auditory, and tactile—influence both presence and cybersickness in a virtual reality (VR) environment. Grounded in sensory conflict theory, which posits that mismatched multisensory input can cause cybersickness symptoms, we evaluated participant responses across three sensory configurations: video-only (V), video with audio (VA), and video with audio and directional wind (VAF). Fifty-six participants experienced a VR roller coaster simulation in either increasing or decreasing sensory order. Presence was assessed through self-reported realism, movement perception, and speed, while cybersickness was measured using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ), heart rate monitoring, Fast Motion Sickness (FMS) scale, and discomfort ratings. Results showed that increased sensory input significantly enhanced realism and speed perception, indicating improved presence. Similarly, the highest sensory condition (VAF) yielded the lowest cybersickness indicators across FMS, heart rate, and discomfort ratings. These findings suggest that carefully integrated multisensory stimuli can improve VR user experience by increasing immersion and reducing discomfort.

This article investigates how experiencing Virtual Reality (VR) Disability Simulation (DS) affects information recall and participants' implicit association towards people with disabilities (PwD). Implicit attitudes are our actions or judgments towards various concepts or stereotypes (e.g., race) which we may or may not be aware of. Previous research has shown that experiencing ownership over a dark-skinned body reduces implicit racial bias. We hypothesized that a DS with a tracked Head Mounted Display (HMD) and a wheelchair interface would have a significantly larger effect on participants' information recall and their implicit association towards PwD than a desktop monitor and gamepad. We conducted a 2 x 2 between-subjects experiment in which participants experienced a VR DS that teaches them facts about Multiple Sclerosis (MS) with factors of display (HMD, a desktop monitor) and interface (gamepad, wheelchair). Participants took two Implicit Association Tests before and after experiencing the DS. Our study results show that the participants in an immersive HMD condition performed better than the participants in the non-immersive Desktop condition in their information recall task. Moreover, a tracked HMD and a wheelchair interface had significantly larger effects on participants' implicit association towards PwD than a desktop monitor and a gamepad.

This study investigates and compares brain signals between persons with and without Multiple Sclerosis (MS) when exposed to cybersickness-provoking Virtual Reality (VR). Cybersickness is a set of discomforts and commonly triggered by VR exposure. It has symptoms similar to motion sickness, such as dizziness, nausea, and disorientation etc. Although cybersickness has been studied for decades, populations with neurological disabilities, such as MS, have remained minimally studied. Cybersickness could have negative impact on effectiveness of VR-based rehabilitation systems and limit the accessibility of VR for persons with disabilities. MS can disrupt communication between neurons (signal carrying nerve cells) from different areas of the brain. Cybersickness also can affect brain signals, for example, frequency powers may change due to cybersickness. This study investigates the combination of MS and cybersickness in terms of brain signals. To investigate the effect of cybersickness on participants' brain signals, electroencephalogram (EEG) data were recorded before, during and after exposure to a cybersickness-provoking VR driving simulation. The EEG data suggests that in response to cybersickness-provoking VR exposure, participants with MS have mostly shown similar changes in brain activity with different magnitudes than participants without MS. Also, for at least one scalp location we have found completely opposite brain signals in MS-Group when compared to Non-MS-Group. Difference in magnitude or completely different trend in brain signals can imply that cybersickness affects persons with MS differently than persons without MS and may be different cybersickness reduction techniques are required for different populations.

Disability Simulation (DS) is an approach used to modify attitudes regarding people with disabilities. DS places people without disabilities in situations that are designed for the users to experience a disability. In this research we investigate reverse disability simulation (RDS) in a virtual reality environment. In a RDS people with disabilities perform tasks that are made easier in the virtual environment compared to the real world. We hypothesized that putting people with disabilities in a RDS will increase confidence and enable efficient task completion. To investigate this hypothesis, we conducted a within-subjects experiment in which participants performed a virtual “kicking a ball” task in two different conditions: a normal condition without RDS (i.e., same difficulty as in the real world) and an easy condition with RDS (i.e., physically easier than the real world but visually the same). The results from our study suggest that RDS increased participants' confidence.

The objective of this study is to investigate how different visual components of Virtual Reality (VR), such as field of view, frame rate, and display resolution affect postural stability in VR. Although previous studies identified these visual components as some of the primary factors that differ significantly in VR from reality, the effect of each component on postural stability in VR is yet unknown. While most people experience postural instability in VR, it is worse for people with balance impairments (BIs). This is likely because they depend more on their visual cues to maintain postural stability. Therefore, we conducted a within-subject study with ten people with balance impairments due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). In each condition, we varied one component and kept all other components fixed. Each participant explored the virtual environment (VE) in a controlled fashion to make sure that the effect of the visual components was consistent for all participants. Results from our study suggest that decreased field of view and frame rate have significant effects on postural stability, but the effect of display resolution is inconclusive. Therefore, VR systems targeting people with balance impairments should focus on improving field of view and frame rate rather than display resolution.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate a concept called virtual ability simulation (VAS) for people with disability in a virtual reality (VR) environment. In a VAS people with disabilities perform tasks that are made easier in the virtual environment (VE) compared to the real world. We hypothesized that putting people with disabilities in a VAS will increase confidence and enable more efficient task completion than without a VAS. To investigate this hypothesis, we conducted a within-subjects experiment in which participants performed a virtual task called "kick the ball" in two different conditions: a no gain condition (i.e., same difficulty as in the real world) and a rotational gain condition (i.e., physically easier than the real world but visually the same). The results from our study suggest that VAS increased participants' confidence which in turn enables them to perceive the difficulty of the same task easier.

The objective of this study is to investigate how different visual components of Virtual Reality (VR), such as field of view, frame rate, and display resolution affect postural stability in VR. Although previous studies identified these visual components as some of the primary factors that differ significantly in VR from reality, the effect of each component on postural stability is yet unknown. While most people experience postural instability in VR, it is worse for people with balance impairments (BIs). This may be because they depend more on their visual cues to maintain postural stability. We conducted a study with ten people with balance impairments due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and seven people without balance impairments to investigate the effect of different visual components on postural stability. In each condition, we varied one of the visual components and kept all other components fixed. Each participant explored the virtual environment (VE) in a controlled fashion to make sure that the effect of the visual components was consistent for all participants. Results from our study suggest that for people with BIs, decreased field of view and decreased frame rate have significant negative effects on postural stability, but the effect of display resolution is inconclusive. However, for people without BIs, there were no significant differences for any of the visual components. Therefore, VR systems targeting people with balance impairments should focus on improving field of view and frame rate before improving display resolution.

Most people experience some imbalance in a fully immersive Virtual Environment (VE) (i.e., wearing a Head Mounted Display (HMD) that blocks the users view of the real world). However, this imbalance is significantly worse in People with Balance Impairments (PwBIs) and minimal research has been done to improve this. In addition to imbalance problem, lack of proper visual cues can lead to different accessibility problems for PwBIs (e.g., small reach from the fear of imbalance, decreased gait performance, etc.) We plan to explore the effects of different visual cues on peoples' balance, reach, gait, etc. Based on our primary study, we propose to incorporate additional visual cues in VEs that proved to significantly improve balance of PwBIs while they are standing and playing in a VE. We plan to further investigate if additional visual cues have similar effects in augmented reality. We are also developing studies to research reach and gait in VR as our future work.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of the sense of presence on one aspect of learning, information recall, in an immersive virtual reality (VR) disability simulation. Previous research has shown that the use of VR technology in education may facilitate improved learning outcomes, however, it is still an active research topic as the learning outcomes can vary widely. We hypothesized that a higher level of immersion and involvement in a VR disability simulation that leads to a high sense of presence will help the user improve information recall. To investigate this hypothesis, we conducted a between subjects experiment in which participants were presented information about multiple sclerosis in different immersive conditions and afterwards they attempted to recall the information. We also looked into whether there is any adverse effect of cybersickness on the information recall task in our disability simulation. The results from our study suggest that participants who were in immersive conditions were able to recall the information more effectively than the participants who experienced a non-immersive condition.

The objective of this research is to improve the accessibility of Head-Mounted Displays (HMDs) for users with balance impairments while they are in immersive Virtual Environments (VEs). Previous research has shown that most users experience some imbalance in a fully immersive VE. However, this imbalance is significantly worse in users with balance deficits. Thus, this research aims to determine an effective visual feedback technique to improve balance of persons while using VEs to improve the accessibility of HMDs. In order to do that, we conducted a study with seven users without impairment and seven users with balance impairments due to Multiple Sclerosis (MS). We investigated how a static reference frame (SRF) (e.g., a cross-hair always rendered in the same position on the user's display screen) impacts the participants' balances in VR. Results indicate that a SRF significantly improves balance in VR for users with MS. Based on these results, we propose guidelines for designing more accessible VEs for persons with balance impairments.

Cybersickness is commonly experienced by the users in immersive Virtual Environments (VE). It has symptoms similar to Motion Sickness, such as dizziness, nausea etc. Although there have been many cybersickness experiments conducted with persons without disabilities, persons with disabilities, such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS), have been minimally studied. This is an important area of research because cybersickness could have negative effects on virtual rehabilitation effectiveness and the accessibility of VEs. For this experiment, we recruited 16 participants - 8 persons with MS and 8 persons without MS from similar demographics (e.g. age, race). Two participants from population without MS could not complete the experiment due to severe cybersickness. We asked each participant to experience a VE. We collected Galvanic Skin response (GSR) data before and during VR exposure; GSR is commonly used as an objective measure of cybersickness. Also, Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) feedback was recorded before and after the experiment. SSQ results show that the VE induced cybersickness in the participants. The GSR data suggests that the cybersickness may have induced similar physiological changes in participants with MS as participants without MS, albeit with greater variability in participants without MS. However, participants with MS had significantly lower GSR during VR exposure. In this paper, we compare the effects of cybersickness between the people with MS and the people without MS with respect to SSQ score and GSR data.

The demand for electronic medical data sharing is increasing due to treatment delays and increased medication costs caused by data disorganization between healthcare providers. The integration of computer technology has met these challenges and revolutionized healthcare. Through cloud computing, data accessing from multiple locations has become easier. However, concerns about the protection of such private medical data have arisen as involuntary disclosure of this information can affect a patients personal life. Although considerable research has been done to solve this problem using a cloud brokerage system, numerous risks regarding this privacy violation problem remain. This paper aims to provide a security model for cloud data to facilitate the exchange of medical records with various institutes without privacy concerns. We demonstrate via experiment that our method yields greater performance than the existing technique.