Physiologically-Adapted Virtual Reality Experiences for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

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This project will catalyze a new collaboration between Shaftesbury and the University of Toronto/Holland Bloorview KidsRehabilitation Hospital to design a virtual reality experience for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Many children withASD have difficulty coping with new situations and settings and this can cause anxiety and missed opportunities for education andmeaningful participation. To help children cope with these transitions, Shaftesbury is developing a virtual reality experience forchildren to virtually and safely explore new settings before the actual experience. The difficulty level of the virtual environment willbe adjusted in a gradual and clinically-meaningful way to desensitize the child to particular anxiety-provoking triggers over multipleVR sessions. Shaftesbury will partner with researchers at the University of Toronto/Holland Bloorview Kids Rehab to develop asystem to guide this adjustment process. Specifically, we propose to use physiological signal to identify and adjust features of thevirtual environment that cause distress for children (e.g., noise levels, colors, various visual details). This will lead to apersonalized experience for each child that addresses their unique challenges. We will leverage our shared interests and expertiseto enhance the usability and effectiveness of Shaftesburys system for children with ASD. The method and algorithms generatedfrom this project will be directly integrated into the Positive Distraction Entertainment System software during the system testphase and in a future phase of the commercial deployment.