Simo Jurisic

Please tell us about yourself

I’ve lived in Sydney for most of my life and have always had a passion for digital media. After a period creating simple film projects inspired by the early YouTube works of Freddie Wong, I slowly progressed into being interested in game development. This would eventually lead to me studying game development at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment, where I had the opportunity to work with some amazing artists and designers to create fun and unique gameplay experiences.

After my studies, I landed my first job at the iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research at UNSW, where I learned that I could translate my game development skills into developing real-time tools and training environments for their immersive 360° cinema. These projects included design tools for theatre production and 3D wildfire simulations for firefighter training. After this, I worked for a brief year at a game development studio on the game title Beyond Contact and then ended up back at the university where I am now.

What was it like to co-design this VR solution with clinicians?

It was a very unique and interesting experience to say the least. Working in the world of healthcare presents very different challenges to what I have worked on previously and being able to work directly with the clinicians who would be using the device, and who have a lot of hands-on experience with these challenges has been a great learning experience.

What are key considerations when designing specifically for stroke patients?

The main consideration throughout the entire project was the lack of mobility of the patients. The project had to be designed such that even minor hand movements were engaging enough to keep the patient interested and using the experience for longer periods of time. There were also other considerations such as making it as seamless as possible for the device to be placed on a patient and have the application work without any extra setup once put on.

Could you walk us through the VR equipment chosen for this project and how it supports patient rehabilitation?

The headsets that we used for the project were the Meta Quest 2, and later the Meta Quest 3. The main reasons for this choice were cost effectiveness, as these devices are relatively affordable, and more importantly the accuracy of the integrated hand tracking functionality. The use of hand tracking allowed us to create a much more seamless experience for the patients, and promoted movement without requiring the use of controllers, which some patients may not even be able to hold.

What are some exciting ways VR is currently being used in healthcare?

There are many interesting ways that VR is being used in healthcare today, from planning surgical procedures using interactive models of MRIs and CT scans (which can also be used for training), to treating mental health through immersive environment simulations and gamifying rehabilitation programs. But even with all of this, we’re still only at the beginning of figuring out all the unique ways that blending the digital and physical worlds can assist in the many different realms of healthcare.