OSU study assesses injury risk due to use of VR devices

EUGENE, Ore. — Some common virtual reality movements contribute to muscle strain and discomfort, according to a recent Oregon State University study. The work is an effort to ensure user safety in a technology that is used not only for gaming, but also education and industrial training.

“There are no standards and guidelines for virtual and augmented reality interactions,” researcher Jay Kim of OSU’S College of Public Health and Human Sciences said in a news release.

Virtual reality users wear a headset and engage in full-body, three-dimensional movements – unlike conventional computer users, where a desk or the arms of a chair offer some level of support for the hands and arms.

With sensors placed on participants’ joints and muscles, researchers used motion capture to record their movements and electromyography to measure electrical activity in their muscles while performing common VR gestures. Wearing an Oculus Rift VR headset, participants were tasked with either pointing to specific dots around a circle, or coloring in a certain area with their finger.

Regardless of the angle, extending the arm straight out causes shoulder discomfort in as little as three minutes, Kim said. With prolonged use, as VR often requires, this may lead to major health problems like gorilla arm syndrome and rotator cuff injuries.

In addition, the heavy VR headset may increase the burden on the cervical spine, risking greater neck strain.

In computer users, the relationship between awkward postures or repeated movements and musculoskeletal disorders is well known, Kim said. “We wanted to see how the VR compares to conventional computer-human interactions.”

The goal of the study was to establish a baseline of optimal object placement and angles, so VR developers going forward can design games and programs that minimize user discomfort.

Kim wants to avoid the mistakes of the past. When personal computing was first emerging in the ’80s and ’90s, he said, people often didn’t think of the risks of overuse until it was too late.

With VR, he said, “We’d like to learn now rather than later.”