Remote VR Social Pragmatics Therapy

This project is currently a work-in-progress and the eventual end-goal is to publish a paper with this work

I am working with Dr. Diane Millar and Emilee Lane (My Wife :)) on a project that allows us to use VR as a therapy tool for social pragmatic training for individuals with autism. Clients will be in different simulated social contexts (e.g., classroom, pool, bowling alley, etc.) in which the clinician and client will complete different therapy exercises inside of the virtual environments. Clinicians can reward clients with “coins” in order to allow them to play different games within a specific virtual environment as a reward for meeting criteria in targeted therapy exercises.

We intend to use eye and facial tracking data to create a conversation simulation that closely mirrors real-life interactions. In addition, this experience will be networked with Photon Fusion so that the clinician and client will be able to interact with one another in real-time.

We anticipate this work will conclude in Spring 2024 as part of Emilee’s Master’s degree thesis work.