VMocion raises $3M to reduce motion sickness in virtual reality
The company's technologies eliminate conflicting signals being sent to the brain
Motion sickness occurs when people feel motion without seeing that matching motion, meaning the eyes and inner ears send conflicting signals to the brain, causing a misalignment of the body's vestibular and ocular systems. This is a real problem in particular when it comes to people using virtual reality, as between 40% to 70% of VR users experience symptoms of motion sickness after only 15 minutes.
VMocion wants to solve that problem for the industry, and so it has developed immersive technologies that it says can allow users to engage in VR, augmented reality (AR), and extended reality (XR) experiences, and participate for longer periods, without experiencing any discomfort or fatigue.
The company will continue to build out its technology thanks to a $3 million seed round from announced this week from AZ Crown and Mayo Clinic. Along with the funding, it was also revealed that Eric Crown of Insight Enterprises has joined the Board of Directors at VMocion, alongside VMocion principals and Mayo Clinic.
Founded in 2016, The Scottsdale, Arizona-based VMocion has developed WAIV technology, which raises the threshold of the vestibular sensation of motion. That mitigates the brain's perception of motion, removing visual-vestibular mismatch, ultimately preventing motion sickness.
Meanwhile, the company's 3V technologies allow users to feel the motion they see, meaning it gives them a virtually stimulated sense of physical motion matches the motion seen on screen.
According to VMocion, the combined technologies help over 40% of people who experience motion sickness problems, and can be used in a variety of settings, including VR, XR, and HMDs, as well as consumer and commercial applications such as 2D/3D gaming, planes, trains, entertainment, automobiles, marine travel, amusement park experiences, EV/AV, flight simulation, pilot training, and in military applications.
The company holds an exclusive license to select Mayo Clinic patented technologies; as such Mayo Clinic has a financial interest in VMoction's technology. The organization says it will use any revenue it receives to support its not-for-profit mission in patient care, education and research.
