The big problem in the metaverse isn’t Meta, it’s not even Mark Zuckerberg. are dizziness

When Electronic Arts ad that ‘Star Wars: Squadrons’ would have support for virtual reality glasses – how did the story change with respect to the arcade versionI rubbed my hands together. “It’s going to be spectacular.” When I was finally able to test it with my (somewhat old HP mixed reality glasses), I lasted about 5 minutes. I couldn’t anymore. I ended up totally dizzy and sweating. The discomfort lasted a long time.

I thought it was more the fault of the glasses (an already somewhat old model from HP) —and perhaps my own sensitivity—. I also believed that over the years the problem would be solved. It’s been a long time and the truth is that the problem has not disappeared. In fact, it could be the real big threat to that theorist—and utopian?— revolution that poses Zuckerberg’s metaverse.

motion sickness. This type of dizziness occurs when our brain receives signals that should not be there. Every time we move our heads, the brain anticipates how our ears or eyes will respond, correcting and balancing everything as if it were a unique image stabilizer. If the information you expect and the information that arrives are different, nausea, sweats or fatigue appear.

Astronauts came first. NASA became interested in motion sickness in the 1970s, and 60% of the astronauts who traveled on the Space Shuttle experienced it on their first flight. The first serious cases occurred in the Apollo missions, and that caused them to begin investigating ways to avoid it.

Then everyone else. The annoying feeling comes from much further away. Seneca already wrote about her when recounting a boat trip (Letters to Lucilius, p. 150) “I was so dizzy that I did not think of the danger, experiencing great nausea caused by stirred bile that I could not expel.” There are many who have suffered it while traveling on means of transport such as ships or planes, but also on car trips.

including virtual reality. He would end up also appearing in the first solutions of virtual reality —as in the legendary oculus rift-, though except in exceptional cases manufacturers have never seemed particularly concerned about mentioning it. Google recognized the problem when he started betting on this field, and for example the first generation Sony PSVR they needed to improve Partly because of this issue. Newer models like goal quest 2 they are not exempt from the problem.

How many people does it affect? There was not very conclusive data on the percentage of people who are prone to motion sickness. Some studies said that the 10% and others of 33%. A study this year evaluated the problem in 92 volunteers.

They had to spend about 10 minutes with virtual reality glasses in a virtual scenario in which they moved through a house. 65% of them experienced symptoms, and a third had more severe ones. 22 did not even last 10 minutes… and that the virtual environment was almost static and simple. Nothing to fly through space in all directions shooting from one side to another with a ship.

This is a problem. Oscar Garrido, responsible for the study, explained in The Daily Beast how those findings should concern VR app developers. Offering glasses with better resolution and a better refresh rate can help, but the experiences —which can be more or less “moved”— also condition users.

If I get dizzy, I’m gone. Yes Zuckerberg wants let’s spend a lot of hours with virtual reality glasses living, enjoying and working in the metaverse, you will have to solve that problem. Not only him, of course: the rest of the manufacturers —Apple, Microsoft— and everybody those who bet on their own metaverses they should take that into account.