4. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - Faculties submissions
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Item The Impact of the Metaverse on the South African Insurance Industry(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Mia, Rashad; Quaye, EmmanuelThe internet is evolving, where virtual reality and artificial intelligence converge to create a more immersive online experience. This revolutionised digital space will allow users to interact and transact virtually with more users more efficiently. This will impact the way we live, work, and socialise. Despite multiple articles discussing the metaverse and its relational impact on the insurance industry, this research paper aims to understand the metaverse from different South African perspectives, and through virtual one on one interviews; participants were interviewed to unpack further potential risks and benefits of the metaverse on the South African consumer. This also led to perspectives on the potential insurance landscape within virtual worlds and the type of products and services that could stem from. The thematic analysis of the insurance landscape in the metaverse provided insights into emerging trends and opportunities in the space that covered themes such as virtual property insurance, cyber insurance, digital identity, reputational insurance, and personalised insurance products that could be developed to tailor individual needs. In terms of risks and benefits, the data and information highlighted themes that touched on addiction, privacy and security, social isolation as well as financial risks. On the other hand, the benefits mentioned were enhanced social experiences, access to new experiences as well as professional opportunities. The research of this paper intends to provide a localised viewpoint of insurance in South Africa and how such a highly regulated industry will pivot, if at all, towards the inevitability of the metaverse.Item Consumer acceptance and adoption of metaverse environments in South Africa(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Malebana-Metsing, Sekete; Alagbaoso, ManessahThis research focuses on the acceptance and adoption drivers of metaverse (virtual world) environments in South Africa. In particular, it explores the influence of enabling technology, digital identity, access to economic resources in the form of virtual currencies and alternative digital payment capabilities as motivators of metaverse acceptance. The effect of an individual’s social circle is also examined in detail. The theoretical model used in this research is the Universal Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The study used a cross-sectional, quantitative methodology that followed a positivist approach. Primary data was collected from a sample of adult individuals residing in South Africa through a self-administered online questionnaire. Data analysis included correlation analysis, item reduction, exploratory factor analysis, moderation variable analysis and multiple regression analysis for the constructs represented in UTAUT. The findings indicate that enabling technology, digital identity, social influence and access to economic resources (virtual currencies) are strong predictors of individual behavioural intention and usage behaviour regarding the metaverse technology. The current state of the metaverse technology in the country is considered nascent, although there is wider acceptance of console and personal computing gaming in virtual world games such as Second Life, Roblox Minecraft, World of Warcraft and Fortnite. This indicates that immersive virtual reality technology is yet to mature to the point where it can meet the needs of consumers.Item Evaluation and algorithmic adaptation of brain state control through audio entertainment(University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-12) Cassim, Muhammed Rashaad; Rubin, David; Pantanowitz, AdamThis dissertation presents the design and evaluation of a system that can alter the dominant brain state of participants through audio entrainment. The ‘rch broadly aimed to identify the possible improvements of a dynamic entrainment stimulus when compared to a set entrainment stimulus. The dynamic entrainment stimulus was controlled by a Q-Learning (QL) model. The experiment sought to build on previous research by implementing existing entrainment methods in Virtual Reality and dynamically optimising the entrainment stimulus. The neurological effects of the stimuli were evaluated by analysing electroencephalogram measurements. It was found that a set 24 Hz entrainment stimulus increased the power of Beta band brain waves relative to a control condition. Further, contrary to existing research, it was found that the entrainment stimulus did not have a notable effect on brainwave connectivity at the entrainment frequency. The study subsequently evaluated if the QL agent could learn to optimise the entrainment stimulus. The agent was allowed to switch between an 18 and 24 Hz entrainment stimulus and succeeded in learning an optimised policy. The QL driven stimulus yielded results that generally exhibited the same characteristics as the set entrainment stimulus when using power and connectivity analysis methods. Furthermore, the power analysis indicated that the QL driven stimulus was able to affect a broader range of frequencies within the targeted band. The QL driven stimulus, additionally, resulted in higher meta-analysis metric values in some aspects. These factors indicate that it was able to have a more consistent impact on targeted brain waves. Lastly, results from participants whose stimulus was controlled by a QL driven stimulus using optimal actions indicated that the optimised actions created a more sustained increase in Beta band activity when compared to any other results, indicating the impact of the optimised policy learned.