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Heiko Hecht

The best way to measure cybersickness

The Fast Motion Sickness Scale (FMS) has become a valuable tool to assess motion sickness whenever quick unobtrusive measures need to be taken. It is well-anchored and provides scalable, quantitative data, however, it is indifferent to individual symptoms. If anything, it focuses on nausea and neglects many other symptoms of motion sickness such as eye-strain or dizziness. We seek to exploit the advantages of traditional symptom-based questionnaires without subscribing to their disadvantages. To do so, we propose to diversify the FMS to include the most important symptom groups. In particular, we propose the use of three separate FMS variants, each focusing separately on nausea, oculomotor discomfort, and dizziness. We report first findings with these variants of the FMS. 

Bio

Heiko Hecht is a full professor of Experimental Psychology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Trained in psychology in Trier and at the University of Virginia, with further qualification through a habilitation in Munich, he has held research positions at the Max Planck Institute, NASA Ames Research Center, the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Bielefeld, and MIT’s Man-Vehicle Lab. His work explores perceptual and sensorimotor processes in natural and technologically mediated environments, focusing on artificial gravity, intersensory integration, intuitive physics, spatial perception, and motion sickness in simulators and virtual reality. He teaches broadly in experimental and perceptual psychology and has supervised numerous dissertations. His research has received support from major national and international funding agencies and is reflected in widely cited publications on perception, action, and human–technology interaction.

About the Colloquium
The Mind Meets Machine series is a new monthly forum at Aalto CS that brings together researchers and students across disciplines. We focus on the intersection of mind and technology, from cognitive mechanisms to applied AI, aiming to share cutting-edge research, spark dialogue, and foster collaborations across schools and departments.