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Virtual reality technology addresses cybersickness in nursing students

21 December 2020 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied

Kat Walk Mini_web read more — The KAT Walk mini (Omni Directional Treadmill) used to reduce and eliminate cybersickness.

An officer at the School of Nursing Simulation Laboratory of the University of the Free State (UFS) is aiming to cure or minimise cybersickness in nursing students with a popular virtual reality gaming tool.

Bennie Botha, who is acting as head of the Information, Communication and Simulation Technology at the School of Nursing Simulation Laboratory, developed a virtual environment in which nursing students use immersive virtual reality to perform a simulation scenario. This is part of his master’s degree in Computer Science and Informatics under the supervision of Dr Lizette de Wet and co-supervisor Prof Yvonne Botma.

Botha received his master’s degree with distinction during the UFS virtual graduation in October.

Cybersickness

Botha had found that some people experience cybersickness (almost like motion sickness), which is a significant issue and difficult to address. This he would now try to address with a virtual reality gaming tool – the KAT Walk mini.

According to Botha this technology has never been attempted for health-care education and is mostly used in military and pilot training and is very popular as a gaming platform for hardcore virtual reality gamers.

“To test and provide a possible solution I am going to incorporate the KAT Walk mini (Omni Directional Treadmill – almost like the Ready Player One concept) into which students are strapped and they can physically walk and turn around without the need for large open spaces.

“With this I will try and determine whether it decreases or even eliminates cybersickness due to sensory mismatch while using immersive virtual reality. I wanted to provide possible evidence of what causes cybersickness and want to enable virtual reality as an educational tool, not just for gaming. I think immersive virtual reality has a bright future if the kinks (of which the biggest is cybersickness) can be minimised,” says Botha.

Getting funding

He successfully applied for funding in 2020 and received R150 000.

“I must say I was surprised when I got the approval letter. I thought that due to the economic status it would not go through, but I was really glad when I got the approval as this is my dream and I love working with virtual reality for health care. The grant has made my dream come true, especially considering that this sounds more like something from science fiction,” says Botha.

The project started in November 2017 when Botha first conceptualised the idea and took it to Dr De Wet. He then started it as a masters’ project in 2018 and completed it at the end of 2019.

An equal opportunity for students

Botha says immersive virtual reality gives students more time and a more accessible platform where they can practise their skills as it is easy to use and easy to set up compared to other modalities of simulation. But the biggest task is developing a usable virtual environment that gives students more time to practise and increase their theory and practical integration which is key to providing highly skilled health-care professionals.

“By seeking and possibly implementing the new research, I aim to provide students an equal opportunity to partake in immersive virtual reality simulation as it currently excludes people who are prone to high levels of cybersickness. This means they cannot benefit from the same opportunities as other students do.

“I believe it can help all nursing students in SA and Africa as it is much more cost-effective than high-technology manikins and is easier to set up and access with much less manual input required to make it work (apart from the initial development.).”

News Archive

Lecture by Judge Albie Sachs: ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’

2015-03-23

Judge Albie Sachs

Human rights activist and former Constitutional Court Judge, Albie Sachs, will deliver a public lecture on the Bloemfontein Campus. The topic of his discussion will be ‘Sites of memory, sites of conscience’. This lecture will form part of a series that focuses on how the creative arts represent trauma and memory – and how these representations may ultimately pave the way to healing historical wounds.

The details of the event are:
Date: Thursday 26 March 2015
Time: 12:30
Venue: Albert Wessels Auditorium, Bloemfontein Campus
RSVP: Jo-Anne Naidoo at Naidooja@ufs.ac.za
A South African Sign Language interpreter will be present at the event.

Joining Judge Sachs on stage as respondent will be Dr Buhle Zuma, a young scholar and lecturer at the University of Cape Town's Psychology Department.

Expressing experiences of trauma
Judge Sachs is no stranger to the use of the arts as a way of expressing the inarticulable and overwhelming experiences of trauma. Targeted as an anti-apartheid freedom fighter, he lost his right arm and was blinded in one eye in a car bomb attack in 1988. As a judge of the Constitutional Court, he spearheaded conversations about the role of the arts in our constitutional democracy. This has led to the installation of some of the best artworks by South African artists at the Constitutional Court.

Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory, and Representations of the Past
This lecture will launch of the Vice Chancellor’s Lecture Series on Trauma, Memory and Representations of the Past. It forms part of a five-year research project led by Prof Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela, funded by the Mellon Foundation. The event is hosted by the UFS Trauma, Forgiveness and Reconciliation Studies.

“One of the most remarkable aspects of trauma,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela says, “is the loss of language, a moment of rupture that produces what some scholars have referred to as ‘speechless terror’. The arts, in all its forms – literary, performance, and visual – are a viable mechanism through which the unspeakable, traumatic past may be represented.”

These artistic forms of representing trauma are at the heart of this Vice-Chancellor’s Lecture Series. “We are interested not only in how experiences that transcend language are represented through the arts,” Prof Gobodo-Madikizela explains, “but also in probing the limits of trauma theory, and how the creative arts might be employed to bear witness in a way that may open up the possibility of healing.”

Dr Buhle Zuma
Former Mandela Rhodes scholar and one of the 2011 Mail & Guardian’s 200 Young South Africans, Dr Zuma is particularly interested in issues at the heart of our rainbow nation. His current research revolves around the question of freedom: what it means to be human for black people after centuries of dehumanisation, and the role of desire and fantasy in the political imagination of post-apartheid South Africa.

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