Penn VR

When scientists study blindness in traditional research laboratories, they struggle to control for environmental factors. At the same time, questionnaires that inquire about day-to-day life provide subjective results. With VR, researchers can send patients into spaces where every detail is controlled, measured, and tracked: Light levels and sources are adjusted, objects change size and color, and users are transported instantly from room to room. The scenarios that we developed test patients’ vision in ways that mimic real-world situations, giving researchers the ability to objectively test how patients’ vision functions outside of the lab.

Typically, our work is more beautiful and polished. Our goal with Penn Medicine was to create a useful and effective tool. The researchers had a good idea of the specific features they were looking for, but were less sure about what the overall experience. It was difficult to define exactly what was needed until everyone had a chance to see play with some demos. As a result, we leaned heavily on our prototyping process to go from feature wishlist to fully-functional testing environment.

Unlike a standard VR experience, our platform has two very different viewing options. For the patient it’s a typical VR experience—they can see and interact with the built environment. Then there’s the researcher view where Penn Medicine staff can see behind-the-scenes and adjust testing conditions on the fly.

Penn Medicine’s breakthrough research has inspired our team. Our work is often about building experiences that help to explain science. Working alongside Penn Medicine, we are proud to be developing the tools to make new discoveries in the treatment and eradication of blindness.