LG, Korean university create AI tech to reduce motion sickness in virtual reality

South Korean electronics manufacturer LG and the East Asian country’s Sogang University have jointly produced a new artificial intelligence engine that reduces motion sickness caused by strapping on virtual reality (VR) headsets, news portal BusinessKorea reported.

To reduce motion sickness, the technology reduces the time needed for a VR user’s movement to reflect on the display screen and cuts motion blur. In VR, richer display resolutions strain computing resources, causing the virtual world to lag and fall behind the user’s movements, ultimately resulting in motion sickness. But the new tech comprises of an algorithm that can convert low-resolution images into ultra-high ones in real time, without using external memory devices, thereby taking the pressure off computing resources and ultimately cutting out any lag experienced by the VR user.

Specifically, the tech can cut down the time needed for a VR user’s movement to reflect on the display screen as well as motion blur to one-fifth or less by reducing the pressure on the computing resources.

In addition, the electronics maker and the varsity have agreed to develop an instrument to measure the time needed for a VR user’s movement to reflect on the display screen as well as motion blur by using a platform comprising of a device that can simulate human neck movements and an optical system. 

“This study by LG Display and Sogang University is quite meaningful in that it developed a technology which accelerates with low power realised through artificial intelligence without an expensive graphics processing unit in a VR device,” Kang Seok-ju, a varsity professor who led the project, was quoted as saying.

Not just LG and the varsity, others are working on VR as well.

Last month, internet giant Google had come up with a new machine learning system that adds six-dimensional interface abilities to any VR headset with two cameras. Armonk-headquartered IBM has also released a software developer's kit made in partnership with Unity that allows developers to add artificial-intelligence functions in VR and augmented-reality games.