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I don't know of any research specifically on motion sickness in giant-screen
movie theaters, but different theories about motion sickness suggest that in
"apparent motion" environments (i.e., those in which you don't actually move
but you feel like you do, like a giant-screen movie theater), two factors
(among others) associated with motion sickness are reflexive eye movements
and sensory conflict. Although I'm not an expert in this particular area, my
read of a summary of the research is that:
1) The more a person tries to move his/her eyes to "keep up" with a moving
(or virtually moving) environment, the more susceptible to motion sickness
he or she will become.
2) The greater the difference between the motion the person expects to
experience (actually or virtually) and what the person actually experiences,
the more susceptible to motion sickness he or she will become.
You might imagine in a giant-screen environment a person trying to rapidly
move his/her eyes to make sense of visual signals (i.e., what's on the
screen) that he/she doesn't expect. In that case, both of these factors
would be operating, and a person prone to it might get pretty motion sick.
So what does that say about where to sit? These are just guesses, but I'd
say the conventional wisdom (and direction) to "simply close your eyes and
the sensation will go away" is pretty sound, based on this research - if you
can't see the movement, you can't try to keep up with it. Also, I would
guess that the higher up you sit in a theater, the more of the whole screen
you can see, so the less rapidly your eyes have to move to keep up with the
action (smaller visual field) and the more likely the eyes will be to
interpret what's going on.
I can send you the citation for an article if you need it or want to read
more.
Bill
-----Original Message-----
From: Informal Science Education Network
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Fisher, Martin
Sent: Thursday, June 28, 2007 1:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: giant screen movie sickness
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
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Nauticus is getting ready to world premier a brand new giant-screen movie
"Gateway to the World" about port operations, Virginia's ports,
shipping-land connections, and technology. Quite a bit of the movie is shown
high-speed. Just in case there are any issues with dizziness or motion
sickness...
1. Do any of you have specific, exact, refined wording - probably from
unfortunate experience when your visitors complained or were sick in your
theaters - that you can share warning viewers about possible motion
sickness?
2. Do you have or know of any research, not opinion or hearsay, about where
is the best location to sit in a theater to minimize motion sickness?
Thanks!
Martin (not Weiss)
Martin S. Fisher
Director of Education & Exhibits
Nauticus
One Waterside Drive
Norfolk, VA 23510
36°50'51"N 76°17'53"W 13 ft
phone (757) 664-1003, mobile (757) 617-7080, fax (757) 623-1287
[log in to unmask]
www.nauticus.org
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