Using VR to support remote therapy for brain injury

The Empathic Computing Laboratory at the Auckland Bioengineering Institute has developed a VR therapy system that allows people with traumatic brain injury to practice everyday tasks (like food shopping) with an AI driven virtual character. The goal of this project is to extend this by adding support for multiple users, so a real therapist can join the patient in VR. This will allow them to observe the therapy and help if needed.

The main research will be to add multi-user support to the existing VR testbed, and then conduct an evaluation of the system with target users. This will involve completing a formal user study and analysing the results. The key outcomes should be a working multi-user system for VR therapy and a research publication describing the work done.

Unity and VR development skills, interest in conducting user studies and data analysis skills.

MBIE Smart Ideas Grant

Page expires: 15 March 2026