Validation of Hardware for looking around in a VR based Driving Simulation (VALHaLa)

Abstract

Traffic research is crucial due to the high incidence of accidents on roadways, making it essential to understand and improve driving behaviour and safety measures. Utilising simulators provides a safe and controlled environment for studying various driving scenarios. The choice of visualisation hardware in simulator research is a critical factor as it can significantly impact driving behaviour, the occurrence of simulator sickness, and the sense of presence, ultimately affecting the validity of research results. This study investigates how the choice of visualisation hardware influences these subjective and objective criteria. An experimental between-subjects design with 72 participants was employed, featuring three visualisation devices: Triple-Monitor, ViveProEye and Pimax8K-X. The 15-minute driving simulation contained four different environments and 12 everyday driving scenarios. The findings indicate a significant variance in simulator sickness between the visualisation devices. The VR HMD conditions were found to induce significantly higher levels of simulator sickness compared to the Monitor condition. This trend was particularly pronounced in scenarios involving complex driving environments. The results of the study suggest, that while for a majority of scenarios, the choice of visualisation interface might not significantly alter the driving behaviour, specific conditions elicit notable differences, particularly when challenging the drivers' perception and response capabilities.