Do Vibrotactile-Rendered Virtual Walking Sensations Reduce VR Cybersickness?

Cybersickness is a major obstacle to immersive VR experiences, and various strategies have been proposed to overcome it. In particular, providing artificial sensory stimuli is considered a prominent approach, which improves presence and real-virtual congruence, thereby helping the situation. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of artificial sensory stimuli in inducing virtual walking sensations in mitigating cybersickness. We conducted two experiments involving a total of 80 participants: (1) a static user experiment ($\mathrm{N}=40$), in which participants used controller-based steering without physical movement, and (2) a dynamic user experiment ($\mathrm{N}=40$), in which participants walked on an omnidirectional treadmill, enabling virtual movement similar to real walking. In both experiments, participants were divided into two groups based on the presence or absence of vibrotactile feedback. We collected heart rate and subjective discomfort data during exposure to a VR environment and then evaluated cybersickness and presence. Across both experiments, the results indicated that virtual walking sensations induced through vibrotactile feedback significantly reduced cybersickness without negatively affecting the perceived task load or presence. Additionally, in the dynamic user locomotion experiment, a greater reduction in cybersickness was observed when vibrotactile feedback was present. These findings suggest that even if the real-virtual sensations are synchronized, vibrotactile feedback may induce cognitive distraction that further mitigates cybersickness.