Investigation of a Pitch Function for Motion-Based VR Bicycle Simulators

Research on cycling safety and comfort is becoming increasingly relevant in the domain of human-computer interaction. Many studies presented so far have been conducted on static bicycle simulators, which suffer problems of immersion and simulator sickness. Since previous publications on simulator design have suggested a positive effect of simulator tilt (lateral motion), we investigated the potential of simulator pitch (longitudinal motion). N=31 participants completed a test track with multiple flat, up-, and downhill sections while being supported with different pitch modes and a baseline without any motion. Our results suggest only a small impact of simulator pitch on simulator sickness and perceived immersion. However, we found out that study participants adjusted their pedaling strength based on the inclination of the test track, which we attribute to the plausibility illusion in virtual reality. The experiment contributes to the design of virtual reality bicycle simulators at different degrees of fidelity.