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21 December 2020 | Story André Damons | Photo Supplied
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

UFS Department of Physics offers unique learning experience with on-campus radio telescope
2015-12-14

Athanasius Ramaila, an Honours student in the Department of Physics, and Dr Brian van Soelen, a lecturer from the same department, in the laboratory where the radio telescope is housed in the new wing of the Physics Building on the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS. The telescope will be used to expose graduate students to the basic techniques of radio astronomy.
Photo: Charl Devenish

The university this year added a four-storey wing to the existing Physics Building on the Bloemfontein Campus. The new development, which includes four lecture halls and four laboratories, complements other world-class facilities such as the X-ray photoelectron spectroscope and the scanning electron microscope.

A unique asset that distinguishes the UFS Department of Physics from other similar institutions, is the Boyden Observatory situated approximately 27 km northeast of Bloemfontein. The observatory houses a powerful 1.5 m optical telescope, and several smaller, but well equipped telescopes.

According to Pieter Meintjes, Professor in the Department of Physics, the observatory has acquired a new addition - a 0.5 m optical telescope donated by the South African Astronomical Observatory (SAAO) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) to the UFS Astrophysics Group. This optical telescope is one of two powerful optical telescopes used to introduce students to techniques such as photometry and spectroscopy.

“The telescope at Boyden forms an integral part of the Department of Physic’s student training and research programme. Because the UFS is the only university in South Africa operating such a facility, and one of only a few globally, Astrophysics students at the UFS have the unique privilege of having unrestricted access to these telescopes for their MSc and PhD studies,” says Prof Meintjes. In addition, the department has also built a radio telescope as part of a post-graduate student project. The telescope, housed in the new wing of the Physics Building at the Bloemfontein Campus of the UFS, will be used to expose graduate students to the basic techniques of radio astronomy, especially in light of the fact that the SKA is nascent. Prof Meintjes would like to act proactively by grounding his students in the relevant techniques of radio astronomy. The telescope will be used to introduce students to the manner in which radio flux calibrations are performed in order to determine the energy output of an emitting source.

At undergraduate level, the radio telescope will be used, together with optical telescopes in the Astrophysics laboratory, to place students at a high baseline regarding the level of multi-wavelength astrophysics training received at the UFS.

Third-year and Honours students will also have the opportunity of practical training in a research laboratory with 15 computers. The laboratory is equipped with software used to reduce and analyse multi-wavelength data.

“My goal is for the UFS to become the major centre of multi-wavelength astrophysics in South Africa and a key role player in the international arena. To be able to do this, our training should be world class,” Prof Meintjes said.

Aided by its world-class facilities and research, the Department of Physics is competing with the best in the world. Research-wise, a group from the Department of Physics is intensively involved with the SKA Project (Square Kilometre Array), with 3 000 dishes reaching from Carnavon in the Karoo to Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. According to Prof Meintjes, many detailed studies can be conducted with the SKA system of sources, showing major eruptions and mass effluent from the systems. Athanasius Ramaila, a BSc Honours student in Astrophysics at the UFS, has also received a two-year SKA internship, where he will be engaged in the SKA software engineering programme to help with developing software for the telescope.

The UFS Astrophysics Group is focusing on the multi-wavelength study of high-energy astrophysics sources. “This multi-wavelength approach to astrophysics is in line with the recent announcement by government that multi wavelength astrophysics will be the main focus for astrophysics research in South Africa. It is also a very important focus for research in the international arena, as can be seen from the large number of international conferences having a multi-wavelength character,” Prof Meintjes said.


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