In 2021, the H-ABC Foundation UK began working on two exciting projects involving Virtual Reality for H-ABC.
IMAGINATION VR:
IMAGINATION VR aims to first understand whether imagination can be nurtured with virtual immersive experience. A second project aim is to understand how connecting children with H-ABC to other children through multi-person VR immersive experiences (like VR art, educational and social games, and shared experiences) can enable children with the disease to share ideas and explore the world with other children, build new friendships by exploring the world together in VR, and collaborate to break the cycle of isolation often associated with the disease. We also hope to use virtual reality to help family members and friends also share these experiences with patients as a way of experiencing new things together.
In the coming weeks we will be posting more about the project.
EXPLORE H-ABC VR:
The second initiative EXPLORE H-ABC VR is a collaboration with H-ABC Foundation UK, volunteer researchers, and Surgical Theater, Inc. (https://surgicaltheater.com/) (who have all donated their expertise and time to this initiative) through which we are developing the first ever virtual reality tour through the brain of an H-ABC patient. We hope that this experience will help families, patients, and clinicians understand the disease from “the inside out”.
EXPLORE H-ABC VR is also using 360 film to capture the daily experience of H-ABC patients so that families, patients, and clinicians can better understand the disease first-hand.
In the coming weeks we will have more updates and information about the project and how you can get involved.
Figures 2 and 3 Exploring H-ABC from the Inside Out. Photos of the VR 360 model of the H-ABC brain. Model by Surgical Theater, Inc. for H-ABC Foundation UK (2021, 2022).
We thank in particular volunteer researchers EJ.K., Dr. Gavazzi of Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, and the team at Surgical Theater, Inc. who lead the 360 modelling, and the patients and their families from the H-ABC Foundation UK for their work and involvement on the projects.