VisuaLift Studio: Study on motion platform using elevator

We present a novel setup called VisuaLift Studio for developing virtual reality content with a motion platform that employs an ordinary elevator and augments the subjective movement of said elevator using sensory illusion of movement induced by vision. A prototype system of VisuaLift Studio consists of an elevator, an acceleration sensor, a microcontroller, a laptop PC, and a head-mounted display (HMD). The experiment demonstrates that it is possible to control the perceived direction of the elevator by providing optical flow through the HMD (visual stimulus), regardless of the real direction of the elevator (physical stimulus). On the other hand, comparing the intensity of subjective movement between the case of visual and physical stimuli and the case of only visual stimulus, the former exhibits significantly stronger sensation of movement, even in the case where the directions of both stimuli are inconsistent.