Browsing by Author "Gamage, U"

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    A Virtual Reality Immersive Experience of Sri Lanka's Sacred Heritage: VR Meditation Experience at the Ruwanweli Maha Seya using Heart Rate and HRV Tracking
    (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2025-12-09) Herath, S; Hapangama, C; Gamage, U; Soyza, N; Gamage, I; Nismi, N
    Meditation is a widely recognized practice that reduces stress, improves focus, and promotes mental well-being. For various reasons, it has become difficult for religious devotees to travel to more intimate places of worship, such as their sacred sites, and to worship and meditate in harmonious environments. This system involves creating a Unity-based VR application that simulates several sacred places in Anuradhapura city, including four of the eight sacred places among the “Atamasthana"” and a short five-minute meditation session. A user evaluation was conducted with 25 participants. The results showed a decrease of 5.4 BPM in average heart rate and a 10 increase in heart rate variability after the meditation session. In this research, the sacred city of Anuradhapura has been used as a sample, but any religious sacred place can be used for this purpose. Through this harmonious environment recreated through Virtual Reality (VR), users can experience mental relaxation regardless of physical location. This research is more important because it combines cultural and religious preservation with modern technological innovations. By incorporating physiological sensations into a VR meditation experience, it is possible to enhance user engagement and monitor the results of the meditation. It can be understood that the physiological effects of this VR-based meditation are a good basis to advance both the study of digital wellness and cultural scarcity.
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    PublicationOpen Access
    Socio-demographic characteristics of recreational activities: evidence from eastern province.
    (University of Jaffna, 2019) Rathnayaka, H; Geethanjana, P; Gamage, U; Karunarathne, H; Jayathilaka, R
    Socio-demographic characteristics of individuals in Eastern province of Sri Lanka are an important area to study to formulate better policies for businessmen who are interested in recreational activities in the country. The study used annual sample of 21,756 households that covered all 25 districts in the country, based on data from the provincial and district level. This research suggests to investigate the determinantsof socio-demographic characteristics of households on spending on recreational activities. As such, itutilized the methods of descriptive statistics chi-squaredistribution to derive quantitative data and information in a meaningful way. The study adopted cross-sectional statistics to create distribution pyramids and diagrams to highlight the socio-demographic characteristics of people in the Eastern province. The results and finding revealed that most spending on recreation activities are done by the Male Headed households (MHHs) than the Female Headed households (FHHs) in the Eastern province. It is respectively 78.63 percent and 21.37 percent.