Simulator sickness in Augmented Reality training using the Microsoft HoloLens

Augmented Reality is on the rise with consumer-grade smart glasses becoming available in recent years. Those interested in deploying these head-mounted displays need to understand better the effect technology has on the end user. One key aspect potentially hindering the use is motion sickness, a known problem inherited from virtual reality, which so far remains under-explored. In this paper we address this problem by conducting an experiment with 142 subjects in three different industries: aviation, medical, and space. We evaluate whether the Microsoft HoloLens, an augmented reality head-mounted display, causes simulator sickness and how different symptom groups contribute to it (nausea, oculomotor and disorientation). Our findings suggest that the Microsoft HoloLens causes across all participants only negligible symptoms of simulator sickness. Most consumers who use it will face no symptoms while only few experience minimal discomfort in the training environments we tested it in.