For over a century, galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS) has been used as a way to stimulate the inner ear nerves by passing a small amount of current.

We use GVS in a two player escape the room style VR game set in a dark virtual world. The VR player is remote controlled like a robot by a non-VR player with GVS to alter the VR player’s walking trajectory. We also use GVS to induce the physical sensations of virtual motion and mitigate motion sickness in VR.

Brain hacking has been a futurist fascination for decades. Turns out, we may be able to make it a reality as research explores the impact of GVS on everything from tactile sensation to memory.