When a new tech product is being tested, there can be many valid reasons to return the product, which is the case with the Vision Pro. Some people are returning the product, citing illness — the motion sickness type. Studies indicate that about 25% of the people who are testing the Apple Vision Pro have this illness. Some have reported headaches, nausea, exhaustion, and dizziness. If the tester is lucky enough to avoid dealing with any of these issues — that’s great. For those Vison Pro users who are not so lucky, tens of millions of over-the-counter motion sickness products are marketed in the United States each year — and for good cause.
Do you know someone who has experienced motion sickness?
Almost everyone has heard or seen someone with this condition — someone lying out on the sand next to a boat ramp, those who stumble off a ship cruise, or someone lying on the grass, face down, just off a Disneyland ride. What about the bags in the back of your seat on an airplane? — you get the gist. Because augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality headsets are not as widely used as possible, extended reality motion sickness is a much lesser-known condition. But it is a very real issue and isn’t exclusive to Apple’s first headset.
Users of the HTC Vive, PSVR, and Meta Quest have all mentioned experiencing the motion feeling. There will always be skepticism when reports surface of consumers returning trendy new tech gadgets only a few weeks after buying them. That’s especially true when you’re Apple, launching a $3,500 item that has been in development for almost ten years.
Motion sickness was undoubtedly a concern for the corporation during the Apple Vision Pro’s research and development stage. Improving the display resolution and cutting down on latency helped to lessen the potential for people to feel motion. If there is a way to prevent motion sickness in all users — it certainly hasn’t been discovered yet. The millions of pills for motion sickness that are over-the-counter and the many prescription types all bear witness to the fact that tons of individuals suffer from this.
Below are the Apple Guidelines if you experience motion sickness while using Apple Vision Pro
The best way to avoid motion sickness is to avoid motion, which is unlikely to be your solution. Speaking from experience, there are other choices. Given the fact that many of us are prone to motion sickness in one way or the other, Apple, very wisely, released some guidelines. They already knew from testing that this problem would come up in a certain number of users of the Vision Pro — and that a sizable percentage would feel at least some symptoms.
Hop on the techcrunch.com article, and near the bottom of the page, Brian Heater gives ideas for overcoming motion sickness issues. Many of these suggestions have worked for me, as well — for several different headsets. But my best advice is this: remember the mention of those over-the-counter motion sickness products at the top of this article? I’m one of those — I use a product an hour before using the headset, before traveling in the backseat of a car, before fishing, before jet skis, before a carnival ride, before traveling on an airplane, before almost anything. I carry an over-the-counter and an Rx with me. But we can face this metaverse together with a bit of help.
Featured Image Credit: Apple Vision Pro
