Beyond Seasickness: A Motivated Call for a New Motion Sickness Standard across Motion Environments

Abstract

Motion sickness is known under several names in different domains, such as seasickness, carsickness, cybersickness, and simulator sickness. As we will argue, these can all be considered manifestations of one common underlying mechanism. In recent years, it has received renewed interest, largely due to the advent of automated vehicles and developments in virtual reality, in particular using head-mounted displays. Currently, the most widely accepted standard to predict motion sickness is ISO 2631-1 (1997), which is based on studies on seasickness and has limited applicability to these newer domains. Therefore, this paper argues for extending the ISO standard to cover all forms of motion sickness, to incorporate factors affecting motion sickness, and to consider various degrees of severity of motion sickness rather than just emesis. This requires a dedicated standard, separate from other effects of whole-body vibration as described in the current ISO 2631-1. To that end, we first provide a sketch of the historical origins of the ISO 2631-1 standard regarding motion sickness and discuss the evidence for a common mechanism underlying various forms of motion sickness. After discussing some methodological issues concerning the measurement of motion sickness, we outline the main knowledge gaps that require further research.