Arm Patent Uses Ultrasound to Tackle XR Motion Sickness
Arm has secured a US patent for a head-mounted extended reality system that analyses motion in images being prepared for display and generates control signals for ultrasonic transducers. The transducers are intended to stimulate the wearer’s vestibular system and influence their sense of balance. The system is designed to address discomfort, dizziness and motion sickness associated with a mismatch between what a wearer sees and what their balance system reports.
The patent, titled “Method for minimising motion sickness for head-mountable extended reality”, was first filed in the US on 24 July 2023 and was officially granted on 16 June 2026. The US patent describes a method in which a head-mounted processing system generates control signals based on visual motion across a sequence of images and transmits them to multiple transducers to stimulate the wearer’s vestibular system.
Arm is a subsidiary of SoftBank and a semiconductor design company. Its technology forms the foundation for processors used in most modern mobile devices, including smartphones and XR headsets. Processor platforms such as Snapdragon and Apple Silicon use Arm technology. The term “ARM-based” refers to processors built around the company’s architecture.
In the newly granted patent, the head-mounted device compares visual motion in a sequence of displayed images against a threshold. When the comparison calls for a response, processing and control circuitry generates signals for multiple transducers to stimulate the wearer’s vestibular system.
The system is intended to address situations in which movement in a virtual environment appears to conflict with the wearer’s perceived movement. In such a case, the proposed response utilises the sensory system involved in balance. The approach is based on reducing the mismatch between visual information and the movement information reported by the wearer’s balance system.
The patent specifically discusses low-intensity focused ultrasound, or LiFU, and ultrasonic transducers. One described scenario involves a small visual movement to the left being matched by a corresponding physical sensation of movement to the left. A larger visual movement would require a greater acoustic radiation force to stimulate the vestibular system in a way that corresponds to the visual motion.
The filing also describes arrays containing one or more transducers per ear. Beamforming could be used to target specific parts of the inner ear. The arrangement is described as a way of directing ultrasonic stimulation towards the vestibular system in response to the movement represented in the displayed images.
Vestibular stimulation is not the only response described in the patent. The system could also instruct the XR application to reduce visual motion, fade the displayed image, introduce a vignette, or align displayed motion with movement sensed by the wearer. These responses provide alternatives to directly stimulating the vestibular system.
The patent also describes using the wearer’s pose or motion, configured preferences, and sensor-derived signals to determine stimulation. The system can use those inputs to establish how the response must be applied. It also proposes recalibration when sensed user movement does not match the visual motion the system expects.
The combination described in the filing involves more than a single response to motion sickness. The system can adjust the visual content, the physical balance cue or both, depending on the information available to it. The patent also raises the question of whether a headset-based ultrasonic system can deliver a precise and comfortable vestibular response across different wearers and real XR experiences.
The patent is not the first proposal to use vestibular stimulation to address motion sickness. Other approaches have considered electrical stimulation rather than ultrasound for the same general purpose.
The newly granted patent describes direct vestibular stimulation as part of a head-mounted XR system, alongside changes to the visual content and the use of motion, pose, preference and sensor information.
