Immersive technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, initially failed to live up to expectations, but have improved greatly, with many new head-worn displays and associated applications being released over the past few years. Unfortunately, ‘cybersickness’ remains as a common user problem that must be overcome if mass adoption is to be realized. This article evaluates the state of research on this problem, identifies challenges that must be addressed, and formulates an updated cybersickness research and development (R&D) agenda. The new agenda recommends prioritizing creation of powerful, lightweight, and untethered head-worn displays, reduction of visual latencies, standardization of symptom and aftereffect measurement, development of improved countermeasures, and improved understanding of the magnitude of the problem and its implications for job performance. Some of these priorities are unresolved problems from the original agenda which should get increased attention now that immersive technologies are proliferating widely. If the resulting R&D agenda is carefully executed, it should render cybersickness a challenge of the past and accelerate mass adoption of immersive technologies to enhance training, performance, and recreation.

Be it discussed as cybersickness, immersive sickness, simulator sickness, or virtual reality sickness, the ill effects of visuo-vestibular mismatch in immersive environments are of great concern for the wider adoption of virtual reality and related technologies. In this position paper, we discuss a unified research approach that may address motion sickness and identify critical research topics.

It is commonly known that a relationship exists between the human voice and various emotional states. Past studies have demonstrated changes in a number of vocal features, such as fundamental frequency f0 and peakSlope, as a result of varying emotional state. These voice characteristics have been shown to relate to emotional load, vocal tension, and, in particular, stress. Although much research exists in the domain of voice analysis, few studies have assessed the relationship between stress and changes in the voice during a dyadic team interaction. The aim of the present study was to investigate the multimodal interplay between speech and physiology during a high-workload, high-stress team task. Specifically, we studied task-induced effects on participants' vocal signals, specifically, the f0 and peakSlope features, as well as participants' physiology, through cardiovascular measures. Further, we assessed the relationship between physiological states related to stress and changes in the speaker's voice. We recruited participants with the specific goal of working together to diffuse a simulated bomb. Half of our sample participated in an "Ice Breaker" scenario, during which they were allowed to converse and familiarize themselves with their teammate prior to the task, while the other half of the sample served as our "Control". Fundamental frequency (f0), peakSlope, physiological state, and subjective stress were measured during the task. Results indicated that f0 and peakSlope significantly increased from the beginning to the end of each task trial, and were highest in the last trial, which indicates an increase in emotional load and vocal tension. Finally, cardiovascular measures of stress indicated that the vocal and emotional load of speakers towards the end of the task mirrored a physiological state of psychological "threat".