STOMA VR

STOMA VR is a 3D VR educational medical simulator in Unity that is designed to help the player familiarize themselves with a realistic medical environment and refreshes their knowledge on medical procedures relating to a stoma. The player goes through an educational test module and then is tested with four patient cases. The educational module teaches and quizzes the player on information applicable to the environment with interactive games. The patient cases simulate a real medical visit with a patient, where the player practices the routine care procedure and gives a diagnosis to the patient.

What I Did: 

STOMA VR was one of two projects I worked on during my work at the MSU GEL Lab over the summer of 2023. I created a large amount of the user interface for the game, as well as working on the game management systems that guide the player through all four patient care procedures. I also worked on many of the gameplay mechanics, such as speaking to the patient and the routine care procedure. The routine care procedure differed depending on if the patient was a tracheostomy or a laryngectomy, but both cases were composed of removing and replacing medical equipment on the patient's stoma. I also created a system to record the user's audio when speaking to the patient, and a system to email gameplay data to a proctor for analysis. In addition, for the educational module of the game, I created all of the educational minigames to teach relevant information to the player.  This includes VR minigames like darts, skee-ball, and whack-a-mole. 

Briefly after our summer work period had ended, I was asked to do some work on the game to improve its performance. I was able to double the framerate of STOMA from 30fps to 60-70fps in about two weeks of work by investigating the game's resources and how Unity loads objects and handles lighting.

What I Learned: 

My work at the MSU Gel Lab was very informative on how to work for a client. I learned that a considerable amount of the work is understanding what the client wants, and communicating with the client and with my team. I also learned a lot about programming and designing for VR, such as working around constraints like nausea and player movement. Going into this job, I had never worked in VR. As a result, I spent a lot of time learning new ways to interact with Unity's VR support to achieve different goals, so I also gained experience in adapting to new programming systems and environments. 

Accomplishments: 

I am particularly proud of the fact that the GEL Lab team was able to get the STOMA VR project a $1.2 million grant for the National Cancer Institute.