Potential for VR as a Therapy Aid
I am continuing to work through the Udacity VR Nanodegree and considering what VR platform to use for my own work. One potential audience for me is the population of ADHD individuals seeking therapy for executive functioning skills and mindfulness.
Essentially this means allowing someone with ADHD be more capable of focusing on being in the moment and being more planful in their life. (My wife is a marriage and family therapist, so that is the source of my interest).
- How accessible would each VR platform be to your target student in terms of price? Take into account location, age, and income.
Certainly the most accessible platform is mobile, but I think at this experimental stage, it may be good to target current therapy clients. That way, the equipment could be shared and used during in-office visits.
- How interactive does your lesson need to be? For example, do I need to pick things up or could I get away with just looking at objects?
The interactivity may be more along the lines of what Unyte is creating (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/190163941/unyte-interactive-meditation/faqs), which includes an array of biometric feedback sensors for tracking your mental state during meditation. However, there may also be unique ways to combine controllers (imagine holding your hand out and, as your stress level decreases, a butterfly lands on your finger).
Here is Unyte’s technology (they plan to release a 3rd party SDK as well), which is what I plan to explore:
- How realistic do your visuals need to be in order to teach? For example, could I use 2D images and videos in a 3D Environment or do you need high poly 3D models.
Personally, I feel like a fairly high level of fidelity is needed to create the immersive experience. If the high-end system works, there is definitely room to explore lower poly options to make the technology more accessible.
- Does my student need to feel like a participant in the experience or can they be a passive viewer? Could they be both?
Definitely a participant as described above — it’s all about them feeling like the world is a part of them and they are connected to what is happening.
- Given the answers above, what are potential platforms you could use for your experience?
Initially, I’ll start with a high-end system (HTC Vive). Later iterations may shift to other platforms, depending on the need and success.
- How would Augmented Reality better help teach your experience?
I’m not entirely sure AR would be a big advantage for this particular teaching experience. Though if pressed, I would say that therapeutic practices depend heavily on the person feeling safe and comfortable. So being able to see the room around you would help.
- How could eye tracking help you better tailor your experience to the target audience?
If the object of the training game is to cause some effect in the world around you, eye tracking could be used to let the game know which object to influence using the person’s biometric data.
- How would better Haptics better teach your experience?
The Microsoft Research haptics (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SC5v3u0vmm4) would be less relevant to this experience, but other haptic possibilites like the Tesla Suit (https://teslasuit.io/) could create the feeling of being on a chilly mountaintop (think meditating at the peak of Mt. Everest).

- How important are things like Lightfield technology?
Lightfield, a technology that allows multiple real focal points in VR (instead of faking it by blurring and focusing objects to simulate depth) has real potential for any VR application as it could create a much more convincing experience for your brain, as well as allow longer sessions because of the increased comfort and decreased eye strain.
- How critical is it that your target audience receives this training within the next two years?
People with ADHD are cerebral outliers in our society — they have the capacity for amazing creativity, but if not given proper guidance and skills, these future surgeons, explorers, and inventors could also trend toward rejection of society (and all the negatives that come with that) because society never let them fit. So helping this population is very important and, the sooner, the better.
