KENNESAW, Ga. | Jun 23, 2025

It's often said that virtual reality (VR) will revolutionize healthcare, education, immersive training, and entertainment, but there's a hidden challenge standing in the way: imbalance.

Despite the promise of immersive technology, even healthy users frequently experience instability while using head-mounted VR systems. For millions of people with subtle or severe balance impairments, VR can become not only frustrating, but also inaccessible because VR disrupts their balance further. To help users maintain stability, research at Kennesaw State University is aiming to make VR technology more accessible for all people, especially those with balance impairments.

M. Rasel Mahmud, an assistant professor of computer science and director of eXtended Reality and intelligence (XRei) lab in the College of Computing and Software Engineering, is leading the groundbreaking National Science Foundation-funded project at KSU, collaborating with the University of Texas at San Antonio. This project is supported by a $1.2 million Medium Grant from the NSF Division of Information and Intelligent Systems. Mahmud is leading a key project component with direct funding support of $409,910. The interdisciplinary project integrates real-time body motion tracking with personalized sound cues that guide users’ posture and movement. The goal is to make VR safer, more accessible, and more adaptive—not only for individuals with balance impairments, but for all users navigating the sensory complexity of virtual environments.

The idea originated during Mahmud's doctoral research in 2020, when a research participant with balance impairment due to multiple sclerosis experienced severe instability while testing a VR headset.

"The participant said, 'Hold me, I feel like I’ll fall down,'” Mahmud recalled. "Even healthy people felt imbalanced in VR, but for him, it was much worse. That moment stayed with me."

VR is widely used in education, physical fitness, rehabilitation, and entertainment, but many commercial headsets can cause imbalance, even in healthy individuals. For users with balance impairments due to neurological conditions, diabetes, age, vestibular dysfunction, etc., the experience can be disorienting or even dangerous. Mahmud's goal is to ensure VR is usable and safe for everyone, especially at home or in outdoor settings.

“Virtual reality should be immersive, not destabilizing,” Mahmud added. “By addressing the imbalance issue in VR, we’re not just making VR accessible—we’re expanding its potential for everyone.”

Mahmud's research builds on his previous lab work, which showed that various types of auditory feedback, including spatial audio and center-of-pressure-based sound, can significantly improve balance in VR. In the study, participants wear a VR headset and perform a few VR activities that require physical movement while standing on a balance plate. If their posture shifts, the system uses adaptive sound cues to guide them back to center. For instance, if someone leans too far to the left, they may hear a louder sound in their left ear. The volume and tone adjust in real time based on the user's movements. These cues are generated dynamically based on users' balance metrics and movements, captured through sensors. They are developing a pose estimation model so that they can measure participants’ balance without standing on the balance board.

"This isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution," Mahmud said. "Every person reacts differently depending on their age, experience with VR, hearing ability, and sensitivity to motion. We want the feedback to be personalized and intuitive."

At this stage, the team is testing the technology with two groups: individuals with and without balance impairments. Preliminary findings show significant improvements in postural control for both groups with adaptive auditory feedback. As the study progresses, the team plans to expand testing into home environments to assess long-term usability and effectiveness beyond lab settings. They also plan to release an open-source toolkit that includes the auditory feedback system and a public dataset of balance-related metrics for future research and development.

“We envision this tool being used in immersive training, rehabilitation, education, entertainment, and even telehealth,” said Mahmud. “Wherever VR is used, balance matters.”

The project is uniquely interdisciplinary, drawing from fields such as computer science, kinesiology, assistive technology, human-computer interaction, computer vision, and deep learning. Mahmud is collaborating with experts in computer vision, health, and kinesiology.

“Dr. Mahmud’s work is a great example of how research in computing can meaningfully intersect with health and accessibility,” said Sumanth Yenduri, dean of the College of Computing and Software Engineering. “This project shows how technology can improve lives in a practical, measurable way.”

– Story by Raynard Churchwell

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A leader in innovative teaching and learning, Kennesaw State University offers undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral degrees to its more than 47,000 students. Kennesaw State is a member of the University System of Georgia with 11 academic colleges. The university’s vibrant campus culture, diverse population, strong global ties, and entrepreneurial spirit draw students from throughout the country and the world. Kennesaw State is a Carnegie-designated doctoral research institution (R2), placing it among an elite group of only 8 percent of U.S. colleges and universities with an R1 or R2 status. For more information, visit kennesaw.edu.