We designed an immersive experience that simulates sensory issues that are commonly present in conditions such as autism spectrum disorders, PTSD, and schizophrenia. These issues are composed of hypersensitivities, such as perceiving lights brighter than they are, and hyposensitivities, such as not being able to make a distinction over sounds. Our solution was submitted to the 3DUI Contest 2020.
We placed the user in an environment where they needed to solve a mundane task, namely, go to a job interview. While a person that does not suffer from this condition would be expecting to focus their energy on the job interview, our simulation subverts expectations and focuses on the task of actually getting there. The user needs to leave the house and get to a taxi that will take them to the interview. When they step outside, however, they are flooded by sensory overload, with too much brightness from the sun, and multiple sounds competing for user attention.
Instead of only showing the issues, we also provide coping mechanisms. People with these conditions don’t stop living because of it, but rather learn and develop strategies to overcome the struggles. We provide users with objects that can be employed to reduce the effects of sensory overload.
Conferences
Leonardo Pavanatto; Feiyu Lu; Shakiba Davari; Emily Harris; Anthony Folino; Samat Imamov; Satvik Chekuri; Leslie Blustein; Wallace S Lages; Doug A Bowman
Get the job! An immersive simulation of sensory overload Conference
2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), IEEE 2020.
@conference{pavanatto2020get,
title = {Get the job! An immersive simulation of sensory overload},
author = {Leonardo Pavanatto and Feiyu Lu and Shakiba Davari and Emily Harris and Anthony Folino and Samat Imamov and Satvik Chekuri and Leslie Blustein and Wallace S Lages and Doug A Bowman},
doi = {10.1109/VRW50115.2020.00106},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-01-01},
booktitle = {2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW)},
pages = {509--510},
organization = {IEEE},
abstract = {This paper presents our solution to the 2020 3DUI Contest Challenge. We aim to provide a compelling virtual reality experience that helps users experience the daily challenges of people with sensory issues. In the story we designed, users need to catch a taxi and get to a job interview on time. To achieve this goal, they must deal with hypo- and hypersensitivity symptoms, and interactively overcome them. Our demo encourages empathy and awareness of the challenges faced by people with sensory issues.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {conference}
}