WeCare

Project Title

WeCare

Project Area of Specialization Augmented and Virtual RealityProject Summary

WeCare intends to use VR technology as it has extraordinary potential to help people overcome mental health problems if high levels of presence are achieved for situations that trouble them.

WeCare is a Virtual reality-based application that integrates real-time computer graphics, sounds, and sensory input to create a computer-generated world with which the users can interact. The application aims to provide intensive care and help to people who desire to overcome mental health problems like addictions, eating disorders, and anger issues. It allows individuals to enter simulations of the difficult and slightly provoking situations and be coached in the appropriate responses, based upon the best theoretical understanding of the specific disorder so that they can learn to control themselves and their urges better. With each passing day, millions of people suffer from anxiety, eating disorders, trauma, and addiction-related disorders. Despite the growing number of patients, the tools required to help people overcome mental health problems are still often inaccessible. WeCare aims to make these tools widely accessible to therapy clinics and hospitals so that every patient can get the treatment they need. The therapists can use the application to have people interact with virtual environments that will help patients control their urges and fears of certain things. All the treatment is to be done under the supervision of a doctor or a therapist, preferably in rehabilitation centers and mental health hospitals.

Project Objectives

Through WeCare we intend to improve mental healthcare with the help of virtual reality. Despite the growing number of people suffering from mental health issues like addictions, phobias, eating disorders, anxiety, and anger-related disorders, there are not enough tools to help the suffering people overcome these problems. The people suffering from any disorder tend to have no control over their urges; hence their involvement in negative, harmful activities keeps increasing. WeCare aims to provide digital therapy to people so that they can rise above these mental illnesses and gain control over themselves and their disorders gradually but successfully. 

The WeCare project will meet the following objectives:

1. Help people recognize activities that trigger their disorders.

2. People will learn to understand their urges better to control their urges.

3. Help therapists provide better treatment to people with mental health issues by using more improved and efficient tools.

Project Implementation Method

WeCare is an application that uses Virtual Reality Technology to create simulations that can potentially help people in overcoming their addictive behaviors. The therapist will have the access to our system through a web application. The web application will be developed using the .NET library and will contain information on how to use the web application and details of VR therapy features in the project. The data records of patients, sessions, therapists, and hospitals will be recorded in the database using SQL.

The client will be interacting with Virtual Environments that we will create using Unity 3D. These virtual environments will be developed using paid and in-built unity assets and packages.  

These virtual environments will be integrated into our web application by building a webplayer in Unity. Then the unity folder containing the HTML and unity3d file of the project will be copied to the webserver to complete the integration.

These virtual environments will target problems including, addiction, eating disorders, anger management, and meditation and the patient will get therapy through a VR headset. These environments will be played in the VR headset by integrating the Oculus asset into the project.

Benefits of the Project

1. WeCare is a platform for people to learn and practice resistance against their addictive behavior in the real world.
2. Reducing the overall therapy cost by using a VR headset and an application only for the treatment instead of investing in recreating different environments each time for each client, which is more expensive than investing in Virtual Reality based treatments.
3. WeCare gives therapists a lot more control over the things and the setting in which the therapy is being performed to avoid the risks of overstimulation overwhelming a client. 
4. WeCare enables therapists to conduct treatment sessions with clients from the convenience of their own offices.
5. Clients can benefit by learning how to train their minds to become acclimated to their addictive behavior and manage their reactions by gradual exposure to their addictive tendencies through VR simulations.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

The main software that will be used in this project is Unity 3D which will be utilized to make VR scenarios while different SDKs will be used to create a user-friendly environment for the therapist. SQL will be used to serve as a database for the web application. The website will be made using HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and PHP.

Final Deliverable of the Project HW/SW integrated systemCore Industry HealthOther IndustriesCore Technology Augmented & Virtual RealityOther TechnologiesSustainable Development Goals Good Health and Well-Being for People, Decent Work and Economic GrowthRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	80000
Virtual Reality Headset	Equipment	1	40000	40000
Graphic Card	Equipment	1	30000	30000
Unity Assets	Miscellaneous	1	10000	10000