MOTION SICKNESS
Your observation about the 7 LED lamp and motion sickness is interesting. I would need more information to pin down the likely cause. Just in case it is helpful to trail runners, I would like toprovide a little background that might relate to your experience.
Motion sickness (including that associated with microgravity during space flight) is often triggered when visual and vestibular (sense of balance) signals mismatch from the normal pattern we experience during locomtion. For example, walking while looking through binoculars or even someone's reading glasses can be very upsetting for some people.
If your head motion does not match well to the visual illunmination pattern, it could trigger sensory induced motion sickness. NASA has put a lot of effort into studying this problem because our gravity sensors don't work properly in microgravity, creating a mismatch
between head (vestibular and visual motion signals). Furthermore, it is difficult to predict who will be most susceptable even though almost anyone can be affected if the visual and vesitbular systems deliver motion signals that are in conflict.
So one scenario could be that a hand held light might move out of
synch with the head and eyes. One last point is that our visual system is most acute where we look so good illumnination where we are looking may be helpful. The peripheral visual fields are very powerful in generating motion effects (e.g. sense of personal backwards motion when
you are stationary but the car next to you moves slowly forward).
Anyway your observation may be helpful in encourging trail runners to pay attention to the qualitiy of our lighting systems.
Mike Mustari
Tucker, GA
posted by Kuma and Yo70pAm @ 4:49 AM
