Resolution deficits drive simulator sickness and compromise reading performance in virtual environments

2026-01-06

arXiv.org

AI Summary

This study investigates how insufficient effective resolution in virtual reality impairs reading performance and induces simulator sickness. By systematically modulating end-to-end effective resolution on a unified logMAR scale and employing a within-subjects experimental design, the research simultaneously measures psychophysical reading performance and symptoms of visual discomfort. It identifies 0 logMAR as a critical physiological threshold: resolutions better than this level yield near-natural reading performance with minimal discomfort, whereas poorer resolutions trigger a nonlinear—nearly exponential—decline in both readability and comfort. These findings establish human visual acuity as a foundational benchmark for human factors engineering in extended reality (XR) systems and provide theoretical grounding and design guidelines for high-comfort immersive text display.

Technology Category

• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Simulating Human Behavior
• Humans and AI: Game Design — Virtual Humans, NPCs and Autonomous Characters
• Computer Vision: Low Level & Physics-based Vision

Application Category

• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Web evaluation methodologies and metrics
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy
• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: Practical large-scale studies of user experience

Abstract

Extended reality (XR) is evolving into a general-purpose computing platform, yet its adoption for productivity is hindered by visual fatigue and simulator sickness. While these symptoms are often attributed to latency or motion conflicts, the precise impact of textual clarity on physiological comfort remains undefined. Here we show that sub-optimal effective resolution, the clarity that reaches the eye after the full display-optics-rendering pipeline, is a primary driver of simulator sickness during reading tasks in both virtual reality and video see-through environments. By systematically manipulating end-to-end effective resolution on a unified logMAR scale, we measured reading psychophysics and sickness symptoms in a controlled within-subjects study. We find that reading performance and user comfort degrade exponentially as resolution drops below 0 logMAR (normal visual acuity). Notably, our results reveal 0 logMAR as a key physiological tipping point: resolutions better than this threshold yield naked-eye-level performance with minimal sickness, whereas poorer resolutions trigger rapid, non-linear increases in nausea and oculomotor strain. These findings suggest that the cognitive and perceptual effort required to resolve blurry text directly compromises user comfort, establishing human-eye resolution as a critical baseline for the design of future ergonomic XR systems.

Problem

• simulator sickness
• effective resolution
• reading performance
• visual fatigue
• extended reality

Innovation

• effective resolution
• simulator sickness
• logMAR scale
• visual ergonomics
• extended reality