Surgery – Sleep or relaxation inducing therapy – Sensory
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-21
2002-12-24
Walberg, Teresa (Department: 3742)
Surgery
Sleep or relaxation inducing therapy
Sensory
Reexamination Certificate
active
06497649
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention generally relates to the use of a visual reference to prevent apparent motion sickness caused by conflicting sensed cues, and more specifically, to a method and apparatus that visually indicate a background reference corresponding to the vestibular senses of the inner ear.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A problem commonly experienced by people traveling in a vehicle, aircraft, or boat is motion sickness. Motion sickness occurs because of a mismatch between the sensations felt in the inner ear vestibular system and those experienced through other senses, such as a person's visual perceptions. It should be noted that for purposes of this discussion and as used in the claims that follow, it will be understood that the vestibular system of the inner ear is an “inertial motion sensor.” Balance receptors in the inner ear respond to gravity (e.g., changes in orientation), velocity, and changes in velocity (accelerations) experienced while moving. When the sensations experienced by the inner ear fail to match visual cues, motion sickness often results.
For example, a passenger traveling along a winding road in an automobile experiences linear and angular accelerations each time the vehicle travels around a curve. The response of the vestibular sensing system to the acceleration caused by the motion of the vehicle will not match the visual perception unless the person is continually viewing the road so that the perception of the person's inner ear corresponds to the visually perceived path of the vehicle around curves. It is for this reason that the driver of a vehicle normally does not experience motion sickness, even though motion sickness may result when the person is traveling as a passenger in the vehicle driven along the same road and in the same manner, by someone else. A driver continuously watches the road and visually perceives the motion of the vehicle so that the visual perceptions match the senses of the inner ear. Passengers in a vehicle, who are reading, or only viewing the interior of the vehicle, or carrying on other activities that cause them not to watch the road, will have a visual perception that does not match the senses of their inner ear. As a consequence, the passengers may experience symptoms associated with motion sickness, such as nausea, headache, and disorientation. Most people find that while traveling as a passenger, they can generally avoid motion sickness by watching the road as if they were driving the vehicle, so that their visual input more closely matches the sensations of their vestibular system. However, when confined within an interior cabin of a ship or in other situations in which the actual movement of the person experienced by the vestibular inner ear apparatus cannot readily be related to the visual perception of that movement, motion sickness is not so easily avoided.
The equivalent of motion sickness can also be experienced when a person is not moving, but the visual input experienced by the person appears to indicate that the person is moving. When a person is in an earth-fixed, and non-moving environment, the mismatch between an apparent self-motion that is evoked visually and the sensation by the inner ear indicating that no environment motion is actually being experienced can cause the symptoms of motion sickness. The conditions leading to this problem can occur, for example, when viewing an IMAX™ motion picture presentation (i.e., a movie displayed on a wrap-around screen) in which motion is portrayed, or when participating in a flight or driving simulation running on a computer, or when viewing moving images in an artificial environment produced with a head-mounted display (HMD). Accordingly, as used throughout this disclosure and in the claims that follow, the term “motion sickness” is intended to encompass any of the symptoms commonly associated with being in a moving environment, as noted above, as well as corresponding symptoms experienced by persons who are not moving, but are exposed to a virtual environment in which motion is displayed, causing the perception of motion by the person.
The unpleasantness associated with motion sickness during travel can be sufficient to cause a person to refuse to travel under the conditions that produce motion sickness. Similarly, the motion sickness that can result when interacting in a simulator or viewing a virtual environment presentation may preclude a person from viewing a presentation on a surround screen or from participating in a simulator or virtual environment experience. It would be unfortunate, when such visually stimulating experiences are becoming more readily available and more refined due to advances in graphics and display technology, that concern about motion sickness might prevent someone from enjoying these experiences. Accordingly, a solution is needed that will enable a person to participate in activities where visual scene motion may evoke illusory self-motion without concern that the symptoms of motion sickness will be felt, or at least, that the severity of such symptoms can be controlled. Ideally, any solution that avoids these symptoms should also be applicable to preventing actual motion sickness caused when a person is in motion, as described above.
Recognizing that motion sickness is caused by a sensory mismatch, a solution purportedly addressing this problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,680 (Butnaru). This patent discloses the use of a display on which “an artificial labyrinth” is presented. The artificial labyrinth is displayed in an HMD or as a projection onto the retina and comprises an array of lines that are controlled to indicate movement of the user's head in regard to a baseline position. The reference teaches that this indication should be updated at least every 150 ms. The artificial labyrinth includes visual cues that show changes in roll, pitch, yaw, and elevational position of the user's head. To sense these changes in position, head-mounted gyroscopic, accelerometers, or magnetostrictive sensors are employed. The signals produced by the sensors are input to a microprocessor that controls the display of the visual cue lines directly in response to the sensor output signals. The patent also teaches that a global positioning satellite (GPS) receiver can be included to provide an orientation or location signal that is visually presented to a user. The cue lines indicative of the user's orientation relative to the baseline are displayed on transparent lenses of an HMD, or projected onto corrective or plain lenses of glasses, or projected into space a few feet in front of the user as a holographic display, or projected onto the retina of the user.
Alternatively, the Butnaro patent teaches that a camera and a projector can both be mounted on a glasses frame worn by the user and used to produce a recorded image of a scene in front of the user. The recorded image is conveyed to a microprocessor and averaged with other images produced by the camera to produce a slowly changing display of the user's environment. The slowly changing display is projected onto the lenses of the glasses, so that the user only perceives the averaged image as displayed by the projector on the inner surface of the lenses. The patent also indicates that a less desirable technique senses orientation with sensors that are not mounted to the user, but are instead responsive to the orientation of an environment (such as an automobile, aircraft, or boat) in which the user is traveling.
There is a substantial problem with the solution proposed by Butnaro to prevent motion sickness. Butnaro teaches that the signals produced by head-mounted accelerometers or other motion sensors are directly indicative of the observer's true orientation and motion and thus, that these signals correspond to the sensations of the inner ear. Butnaro apparently fails to fully appreciate that some motion tracker sensors do NOT produce signals indicative of the true orientation and motion to which the devices are subjected. For ex
Duh Been-Lirn Henry
Furness Thomas A.
Parker Donald E.
Prothero Jerrold D.
Seibel Eric J.
Anderson Ronald M.
Robinson Daniel
University of Washington
Walberg Teresa
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