Quality of Experience of hand controller latency in a Virtual Reality simulator

In this study, we investigate a VR simulator of a forestry crane used for loading logs onto a truck, mainly looking at Quality of Experience (QoE) aspects that may be relevant for task completion, but also whether there are any discomfort related symptoms experienced during task execution. A QoE test has been designed to capture both the general subjective experience of using the simulator and to study task performance. Moreover, a specific focus has been to study the effects of latency on the subjective experience, with regards to delays in the crane control interface. A formal subjective study has been performed where we have added controlled delays to the hand controller (joystick) signals. The added delays ranged from 0 ms to 800 ms. We found no significant effects of delays on the task performance on any scales up to 200 ms. A significant negative effect was found for 800 ms added delay. The Symptoms reported in the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) was significantly higher for all the symptom groups, but a majority of the participants reported only slight symptoms. Two out of thirty test persons stopped the test before finishing due to their symptoms