Dr. Sunu Wibirama discussed his research plan and promoted research in IT and virtual reality with Mr. Masaaki Kawamoto (Senior Program Officer of The Hitachi Global Foundation) during his visit to Hitachi Global Foundation office on 10th January 2017.

Dr. Sunu Wibirama has been awarded The Hitachi Research Fellowship 2016 for short term research activity in Japan during 10th – 25th January 2017. The research will be conducted in Shibaura Institute of Technology, Japan with supervision from Professor Dr. Michiko Ohkura (Head of Ohkura Laboratory and Member of Science Council of Japan). Since 1986, The Hitachi Global Foundation has been awarding more than 190 researchers to promote science and technology. Dr. Sunu is one among twelve researchers from South East Asia countries participating in this prestigious research program for 2016 Japanese Fiscal Year.

This research will be mainly about investigating side-effect of 3D contents in consumer-level virtual reality goggle, Oculus Rift. Virtual reality technology has been used pervasively in Japan, US, and over the world for entertainment, gaming, and educational activities. However, biomedical side effects of bringing 3D content in immersive environment has not been fully understood. Furthermore, some paid VR contents encourage user to even stand up while consuming or playing 3D contents, which may cause severe motion sickness and disorientation. This research will investigate the sickness level of consuming 3D contents in sitting and standing position from subjective and physiological point of view. The result will be useful for end-user to improve awareness on VR technology, as well as for developer of VR contents to develop more user-friendly 3D contents.

More about this research can be found here