Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Delivering Immersive Virtual Reality as an Intervention to Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: A Mixed-Methods Feasibility Study(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alotibi, Fahad Salman; Hendrick, Paul; Moffatt, FionaBackground: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) has been recognised as a leading cause of disability in adults for three decades. Literature constantly calls for improved CLBP healthcare services. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) can encourage patients with CLBP to engage in exercise regimes and remain active, but the feasibility of IVR in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) among patients with CLBP is unknown. Aims: To investigate the feasibility of delivering IVR to patients with CLBP in the KSA. Method: Two studies were conducted. Part 1: an umbrella review of systematic reviews (SRs) aimed to identify, summarise, synthesise and critically appraise existing SRs regarding the effectiveness of VR in individuals with chronic MSK pain and disability, focusing on CLBP. The results of this previous review, along with patients and public involvement, informed the design of a protocol for testing the feasibility of delivering IVR to treat patients with CLBP in the Saudi context. Part 2: a sequential explanatory mixed-methods feasibility study aimed to examine predefined progression criteria of the feasibility of delivering IVR to a sample of individuals with CLBP and explore their experiences along with relevant healthcare practitioners in the Saudi context in outpatient department (OPD) settings. The feasibility study adopted a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design comprising two phases: the quantitative (Phase 1) and qualitative (Phase 2). Findings: Part 1: the overall confidence in the identified SRs ranged from low to critically low, whereas the certainty in the body of evidence ranged from moderate to very low. Although the results suggest that VR, either as an alternative form of treatment or in combination with other interventions, may provide a short-term positive impact on patient-reported outcomes for pain in patients with chronic primary MSK pain, it remains uncertain which specific VR intervention shows the most promise, as the included SRs grouped various types of VR together. However, results on patient-reported outcomes for disability and kinesiophobia were inconsistent. Adverse events included motion sickness, nausea, and vertigo. Part 2, Phase 1: the recruited patients included 31 males and two females over 12 weeks. The feasibility a priori criteria were met for recruitment, retention, dropout, completeness of questionnaire data, and treatment compliance and fidelity. No serious adverse events were experienced among patients. However, some incidences of non-serious, short-lasting, minor adverse events were reported. Part 2, Phase 2: analysis of qualitative data from interviews with eight male patients and three physiotherapists (the latter of whom comprised two males and one female) revealed four overlapping themes: sociocultural considerations, facilitators, barriers, and feasibility. Sociocultural considerations included visual (e.g., avatar outfit), auditory (e.g., music), contextual (e.g., same-gender IVR administrator), and IVR-specific factors (e.g., feeling ashamed to play like a child). From the patients’ perspectives, the study process and materials were described as feasible, and recommendations were discussed for IVR implementation. From the physiotherapists’ perspectives, recommendations for the success of IVR integration into the KSA healthcare system included using multiple devices and an efficient scheduling system. Facilitators, from the patients’ perspectives, included ‘positive IVR experience,’ and ‘IVR is motivational.’ Additionally, from patients’ and physiotherapists’ perspectives, facilitators included ‘IVR is therapeutically useful, easy to use, and tolerable.’ Barriers to delivering IVR, from the patients’ perspectives, were ‘personal challenges’ related to time and travel. Furthermore, the physiotherapists-related barrier was ‘time-consuming for physiotherapists.’ Moreover, from both patients’ and physiotherapists’ perspectives, barriers included ‘lack of knowledge’ and ‘support and infrastructure issues.’ Implications: The results indicate that IVR was feasible, acceptable, and tolerable among patients with CLBP and healthcare professionals in the KSA within OPD settings. IVR can be utilised to support patients’ engagement in physiotherapy OPD settings. Further research focusing on the effectiveness is warranted in this field. Furthermore, further mixed-methods research within the context of this study and other MSK conditions is warranted in the Saudi Context to reveal more sociocultural considerations.9 0Item Restricted Developing a VR-Compatible Full-Body Inverse Kinematics System for Fencing Applications(Saudi Digital Library, 2025-05-07) Abu Khodair, Saud; Chakraborty, Dibyayan; Wang, YongxingThis paper explores the design and implementation of a full-body inverse kinematics (IK) system for Virtual Reality (VR), with a focus on enabling realistic estimations of fencing poses. Fencing presents a unique challenge due to its highly asymmetrical stances, which general- purpose IK systems aren't designed for, therefor the general purpose. The goal of this project is to develop a system that not only solves for the equivalent of a VR user's inputs in real time but also respects anatomical constraints and delivers stable and realistic body pose estimations.6 0Item Restricted 3D Audio-Visual Indoor Scene Reconstruction and Completion for Virtual Reality from a Single Image(Saudi Digital Library, 2025) Alawadh, Mona; Hansung, Kim; Mahesan, NiranjanIn this research, we propose a novel method for generating an audio-visual scene in 3D virtual space using a single panoramic RGB-D input. Our investigation begins with the reconstruction of a 3D model from RGB panoramic data alone, developing a semantic geometry model by combining estimated monocular depth with material information for spatial sound rendering. Building upon the preliminary results, we extend our approach to construct a comprehensive virtual reality (VR) environment using 360◦ RGB-D input. The proposed method enables the creation of an immersive VR space by generating a complete 3D voxelized model that incorporates scene semantics from a single panoramic input. Our methodology employs a deep 3D convolutional neural network integrated with transfer learning for RGB semantic features, coupled with a re-weighting strategy in the 3D weighted cross-entropy loss function. The proposed re-weighting method uniquely combines two class re-balancing techniques (re-sampling and class-sensitive learning) while smoothing the weights through an unsupervised clustering algorithm. This ap- proach addresses critical challenges in semantic scene completion (SSC), including in- herent class imbalances in indoor 3D spatial representations. Furthermore, we quantify the performance uncertainty in our results to ensure an unbiased assessment across tri- als, contributing to more reliable benchmarking in the SSC field. We design a hybrid architecture featuring a dual-head model that simultaneously processes RGB and depth data. Depth information is encoded using a Flipped Truncated Signed Distance Func- tion (F-TSDF), capturing essential geometric shape characteristics. RGB features are projected from 2D to 3D space using depth maps. We explored various RGB semantics fusion strategies, including early, middle, and late fusion methods. Based on perfor- mance evaluations using K-fold cross-validation, we selected the late fusion approach. This method involves downsampling features using planar convolutions to align with 3D resolution, followed by fusing RGB semantic features with geometric information through element-wise addition. The hybrid encoder-decoder architecture incorporates an Identity Transformation within a full pre-activation Residual Module (ITRM), en- abling effective management of diverse signals within the F-TSDF representation. The inference methodology of the proposed SSC model is extended to accommodate 360◦ RGB-D input through cubic projection and 3D rotation, enabling VR space de- sign with comprehensive spatial coverage. We propose a streamlined computer vision- based approach capable of reconstructing a 3D SSC model from a single panoramic in- put, facilitating plausible sound environment simulation. Additionally, our proposed method contributes to reducing the complexity of estimating room impulse responses (RIRs), which typically require extensive equipment and multiple recordings in real space. We implement the audio-visual VR reconstructions in the Unity 3D gaming platform combined with the Steam audio plug-in for spatial sound rendering. Acoustic properties are evaluated by measuring parameters such as early decay time (EDT) and reverberation time (RT60). Comparative analysis indicates that our approach achieves better VR space reconstruction, producing more realistic scene representations and im- mersive acoustic characteristics compared to existing methods reported in the litera- ture. The proposed method contributes to the design of enhanced VR environments by in- tegrating both audio and visual signals into a unified framework. Our results support the development of datasets that combine audio and 3D SSC models, encouraging the application of AI in VR spaces. This advancement has the potential to drive progress in VR applications across various domains, such as gaming, education, and tourism.11 0Item Restricted Role of Artificial Intelligence in Enhancing Metaverse Gaming Experience and Human Interaction: A Case Study of Roblox's AI Implementation(Tokyo University of Technology, 2025) Alotaibi, Omar; Kameda, HiroyukiArtificial Intelligence (AI) is a tool that is useful for enabling and sustaining the Metaverse gaming experience by infusing virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), extended realities (XR), and blockchain. The current research focused on identifying the impact of AI in leveraging immersive experiences and improving human interaction, which plays a crucial role in Metaverse gaming. A quantitative analysis carried out surveys from 200 randomly sampled respondents involved in Metaverse gaming. Using SPSS 26.0, correlation analysis showed that association between the values of ‘r’ of variables Immersive Gaming Experience (r=0.983**), Deep Learning Collaboration (r=0.957**) and Increased Human Interaction (r=0.979**) are greater than 0.7 depicting strong correlation with Metaverse gaming. Regression analysis further confirmed that the role of AI in enhancing the Metaverse gaming experience and human interaction is significant. With the considerable success of AI in Metaverse, the role of DL algorithms is also groundbreaking in leveraging game balance in multiplayer games, satisfying play-testers and designers who own valuable features, real-time rendering, and multi-user design collaboration.12 0Item Restricted Comprehensive Strategies for Time-Sensitive Networks: Path Selection, Scheduling, Security, and Virtual Reality Traffic Insights(Univeristy of Delaware, 2024-09) Alnajim, Abdullah Abdulkarim; Shen, Chien-ChungDistributed real-time applications (RTAs) demand that their communication networks be robust and deterministic. Two properties identify the network’s determinism, which are (1) the stability in terms of end-to-end latency and jitter and (2) the resilience to failures and security threats. To achieve determinism, the IEEE Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) Task Group has amended the standards of IEEE 802.3 Ethernet to support the stringent timing requirements of RTAs. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to satisfy these two properties in the context of TSN and analyze the traffic characteristics of one popular RTA application, namely Virtual Reality (VR). To meet the stability property, we design an incremental performance-aware path selection and non-time-slotted scheduling framework that uses performance measurements to route TSN flows while load-balancing both TSN and best-effort traffic and diversifying the selected paths to avoid creating bottleneck links. Then, the framework uses non-time-slotted scheduling to find the appropriate transmission time to avoid queuing delays (or make them predictable) while enhancing bandwidth utilization compared to existing time-slotted scheduling solutions. The incremental nature of the framework, although increasing its flexibility by allowing RTAs to join the network while it is in operation, introduces security threats. We identify these threats, evaluate their impacts, and propose reactive defenses to detect and react to them upon their occurrences. To better understand future RTAs, we also analyzed the traffic characteristics of the ideal VR experience, where we used the information of the human vision capabilities to derive specific values for the required capacity, latency, and reliability for such an experience. To evaluate the accuracy of these estimated values, we derived corresponding values for Quest 2 using its provided specifications. Then, we conducted realistic VR experiences over an edge-enabled IEEE 802.11ax network to evaluate how far the calculated values were from the measured values. Results showed that the schedulability of better load-balanced TSN flows increases by up to 95.08%. Compared with time-slotted scheduling, non-time-slotted scheduling increases the schedulability of TSN flows by fivefold in some cases. Moreover, non-time-slotted scheduling reduces the number of guard bands, enhancing link utilization by more than 60%. Furthermore, the reactive defenses retained TSN’s determinism by dropping less than 1% of TSN flows in some scenarios. Finally, the measured traffic characteristics from the realistic VR experience over IEEE 802.11ax aligned with their corresponding calculated values.24 0Item Restricted Implementation of the Metaverse for Tourism Education and Training in Saudi Arabia(Bournemouth University, 2024-07-10) Aldawsari, Rawabi; Buhalis, DimitriosBackground: The rapid advancement of virtual reality technologies, particularly the Metaverse, offers transformative potentials for various sectors. In Saudi Arabia, aligning with Vision 2030’s emphasis on technological innovation, there is a growing interest in leveraging these technologies to enhance the education and training in tourism sector. This study investigates the adoption of Metaverse technologies in these areas, focusing on their potential to revolutionise traditional practices and contribute to economic diversification. Aims: The primary aim of this research is to analyse the perceptions and experiences associated with implementing Metaverse technologies in Saudi Arabia’s tourism and education sectors. It seeks to identify the benefits and challenges of Metaverse adoption and propose a framework that facilitates its integration into tourism training and educational practices. Methods: Employing a qualitative research methodology, this study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with 45 participants, including faculty members and students from Saudi universities. The interviews were designed to gather in-depth insights into the participants' views on the Metaverse, its applicability in education and tourism, and the factors influencing its adoption. Data were analysed through thematic analysis, allowing for the extraction of significant themes related to the main understanding of this technology, its benefits, its challenges, and the strategic applications of Metaverse technologies. Results: This study's findings show that the participants in Saudi Arabia have a huge understanding of the concept. However, their understanding is associated strongly with their interest and experience as the students are more knowledgeable about gaming while the instructors know the function of such technologies with the training and the education. The other finding is associated mainly with the practical implications for the adoption of Metaverse technologies. Several advantages of Metaverse integration have been found to include having a sufficient cost to be implemented, connecting the participants globally, allowing for cultural exchange, enhancing engagement and interactivity in learning environments, personalizing educational experiences, developing career opportunities, engaging with technology-savvy generations, developing individual learning skills, and having broader accessibility for remote learners. On the other hand, there are other challenges associated with using the Metaverse, including the high costs associated with technology setup, the complexity of the technological infrastructure required, ethical and societal considerations and resistance to change among traditional educational and tourism institutions. These presented challenges have been opposed with different strategies to be solved, which has resulted in the development of a framework. This framework could be adopted to ensure the positive outcome from implementing the Metaverse in the tourism and education sectors. Conclusions: The study underscores the potential of Metaverse technologies to significantly impact Saudi Arabia's educational and tourism sectors positively. However, successful implementation requires overcoming considerable barriers. The proposed adoption framework aims to guide stakeholders, including policymakers and educational leaders, in navigating these challenges, fostering an environment conducive to technological integration, and ultimately supporting the nation's strategic goals under Vision 2030.48 0Item Restricted Knowledge, perceptions and views of Occupational Therapists towards the use of Virtual Reality for the management of Musculoskeletal conditions: a cross sectional survey(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-12-01) Bin Shalhoub, Sara; Snow, Peter; Tehrany, RokhsanehBackground Musculoskeletal (MSK) disorders are the leading cause of disability around the world. Occupational therapists (OTs) are part of the multidisciplinary team and have a vital role in the management of these conditions. Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that demonstrated positive outcomes for managing pain and other different medical conditions. With its growing interest towards the intervention, the use of VR as a treatment intervention for musculoskeletal conditions is increasing. Since OTs might play a role in the delivery of VR interventions for the management of MSK conditions in the future, research is required to understand the current level of knowledge, experience and views of occupational therapy workforce about using the technology in MSK settings. Aims The aim of the study was to explore the knowledge, perception and views of OTs towards using VR interventions for the management of MSK conditions. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study that involved the collection data through an online survey questionnaire via Microsoft Forms, which was disseminated through social media platforms. Participants were eligible to participate if they were OTs, support workers or students from any clinical, research or leadership background, as the study was interested in obtaining all views. The questionnaire included up to 26 questions which collected data on demographics, and asked participants to rate their perceived views, knowledge and experience according to a 5-point Likert scale. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Results: In total, (65) responses were received from participants from Saudi Arabia (n= 46). United States (n= 10), Poland (n= 6), United Kingdom (n= 3) The majority of participants were clinicians (n= 37, 43%), where just under a third worked in a Higher Education Institute (n= 20, 31%). Overall, OTs reported having limited knowledge on the use of VR interventions for the management of MSK conditions, although there was a greater awareness about their use for managing neurological conditions. Arthritis was the most anticipated MSK condition by OTs to benefit from VR in rehabilitation (n=10) followed by upper limbs injury (n= 8). Only (29%) of participants reported using VR as an intervention. The majority of respondents expressed their willingness to engage with VR training (91%) and deliver VR for pain and MSK management (87%). The cost of purchase was viewed as the most important barrier (49%) to implementing VR to MSK settings followed by patient’s acceptability (48%). Summary and Conclusions: Despite the limited knowledge OTs have surrounding VR interventions for the management of MSK conditions, the majority of OTs were open to developing their skills and knowledge, and being involved in their delivery in the future. Multiple barriers to implanting VR interventions within the MSK setting also exist, they need to be taken into consideration when designing/evaluating interventions in the future. It is recommended that future research focus on the roles and experiences of OTs in delivering VR interventions for MSK conditions management as there is a lack of well-designed trials on the topic.38 0Item Restricted Development of Immersive Virtual Reality Intervention for Patients with Chronic Low Back Pain: Mixed-Methods Study(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-10-05) Astek, Anfal; Sheeran, Liba; Sparkes, ValerieBackground: Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a leading cause of disability worldwide. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) enables interaction with virtual environments (VE) via a head-mounted display (HMD) and is widely used for chronic pain (CP) management, however with little pre-development investigation, and its effectiveness for CP/CLBP management is inconclusive. Therefore, this thesis aims to adopt the Medical Research Council Framework to inform IVR development and implementation for CLBP management. Methods: Three parts were conducted, using mixed-methods design: Part 1: a scoping review to map underpinning theories of IVR mechanisms of action in CP management and key features including software and dose. Part 2 engaged global stakeholders (healthcare practitioners and technology developers) to understand the use of IVR in CP management, adopting a sequential-explanatory study of two phases, Phase 1: an online survey, which informed Phase 2, online interviews with a subset of surveyed stakeholders. Part 3: online focus groups explored physiotherapists’ opinions regarding IVR for CLBP management. Results: Part 1: several IVR mechanisms were noted, with little theoretical basis. Customised software was frequently used, with diverse HMDs, and no optimal dose consensus. Implementation in a clinical setting was common, with adverse effects of motion sickness and HMD discomfort being noted. Part 2: the perceived IVR benefits for CP included combatting fear of movement, with VE personalisation to patient needs and culture being critical. To avoid risks, pre-screening, the initial session being a supervised clinic session, and gradual dose build-up were recommended. Part 3: IVR was viewed as suitable for CLBP patients with low motivation to exercise, however, skills’ transferability to the real world and fall risk were concerns. Part 2 and 3 found cost, practitioner acceptance, and training critical to IVR adoption. Conclusion and future implications: IVR might be a valuable alternative treatment for CLBP patients. Future work is needed to establish an effective working mechanism reflecting on CLBP heterogeneity. Personalisation, safety, workforce training, financial resources, and collaboration between practitioners, technology developers, and patients are key considerations.28 0Item Restricted Virtual reality training for Hajj pilgrims as an innovative community translation dissemination medium(Saudi Digital Library, 2023-08-10) Munshi, Kholoud; Taibi, MustaphaDuring the Islamic pilgrimage known as Hajj, Muslim pilgrims from all over the world, with many different backgrounds, gather together and coexist in the city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. Managing a large and diverse congregation for the safe and successful completion of Hajj requires effective communication channels between speakers of the mainstream languages and international pilgrims or non-Arabic-speaking pilgrims. The focus of the study is on the use of innovative media in community translation (CT) dissemination methods and will determine which CT dissemination media are the most effective for English-speaking Hajj pilgrims. The study compares three forms of media: the booklet and video guides from the official Mnask Academy media produced by Hajj authorities; and the prototype of this study, an immersive virtual reality-based Hajj training media “VR-Hajj”. The methodology of the study consisted of three stages, starting with the development of assessment tools. Community translation usability (CTX) and medium usability (MX) for the different community translation dissemination media, which were based on the literature on CT studies and user-centred translation (UCT) studies, as well as usability studies (UX). The next stage was prototyping, which involved the collaboration between the researcher and virtual reality experts (developers and designers). The final stage was testing the three community translation dissemination media mentioned earlier with English-speaking Muslim users. A total of 96 Muslim respondents were surveyed, three groups were formed, and each participant evaluated a community translation dissemination medium. The self-administered questionnaire elicited perceptions and feedback about CTX and MX from the three groups. Quantitative data was processed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), while qualitative data was analysed using the Thematic Analysis (TA) method. The results of the present study revealed significant differences between the levels of community translation perception and medium usability achieved by participants from each group. In addition, the results revealed the shortcomings of the conventional Mnask Academy training media currently in use, as well as the promising advantages of using innovative immersive virtual reality technology for Hajj training. The study concludes that immersive virtual reality technology, which allows pilgrims to mentally travel to the Hajj area, is more effective for understanding community translation, Hajj rituals and related cultural aspects than passively-created community translation media.19 0Item Restricted From MTV to MVR: The Role of Personalized User Experiences and Interaction Design in Interactive Virtual Reality Music Videos(2023-05-12) Alsaati, Arwa; DuBois, Luke; Nathanson, AlexMusic videos have a long history and have shaped popular culture. With the evolution of technology, music videos are also being transformed by virtual and augmented realities, and interactive audiovisual experiences. Interactive music videos have the potential to revolutionize the music and film industries by providing new ways for artists to interact with their audiences. In this paper, I apply a user-centered design methodology to investigate the topic of interactive music videos as a virtual reality (VR) experience, and to create a four-minute interactive music video experience that seeks to understand the significance of personalized experiences, user agency, and interactivity in this context. The project consists of various elements that can help alter the music videos experience in real-time as the user is venturing on the main guided experience of the video. One of the aims of this project is to get the user to experience the same music video in a different way each time, thus motivating users to go back to the experience again and experience it in an innovative way through each iterative experience.48 0