Effects of Weight and Balance of Head Mounted Display on Physical Load

• Published in: Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. Multimodal Interaction Vol. 11574; pp. 450 - 460
• Main Authors: Ito, Kodai, Tada, Mitsunori, Ujike, Hiroyasu, Hyodo, Keiichiro
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland Springer International Publishing AG 2019; Springer International Publishing
• Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science
• Subjects: Head Mounted Display; Physical load; Product design
• ISBN: 9783030216061; 3030216063
• ISSN: 0302-9743; 1611-3349
• DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-21607-8_35

Recently, VR technology has advanced rapidly, and many Head Mounted Displays (HMD) are sold by companies all over the world. In order to have good experiences in VR environment, comfortability of wearing HMD is essential. However, few studies investigated the feelings of fatigue on commercially available HMDs. In this research, we focused on the effects of weight and balance of HMD on physical load. We performed experiment with 188 participants using shooting game played under different weights and balances. After playing the game, the participants were asked to answer a questionnaire to assess the level of physical loads that they perceived. As the results, we clarified that the weight of HMD affects the feelings of fatigue, and its degree varies depending on the position of the center of gravity. The results suggest the joint torque at the neck can be an indicator of the physical load of HMD. Our results will be highly suggestive for designing new HMD.