Professor Tobias Loetscher | CAIN Lab

Safe Use of Virtual Reality

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When a person puts on a VR headset, their brain rapidly adapts to integrate the new perceptual information of the virtual environment. During and after VR use, users may experience disorienting visual and cognitive after-effects including nausea, spatial disorientation, and visual disturbances that can persist for minutes to hours. Such symptoms can increase risks for falls and accidents, limiting VR’s broader adoption. We aim to ensure safe and positive VR experiences through evidence-based onboarding procedures, predictive models of user susceptibility, real-time mitigation techniques, and comprehensive safety protocols. This research applies across medical training, education, gaming, and therapeutic contexts.

Using Virtual Reality to Enhance Wellbeing in Older Adults

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Virtual reality offers unique opportunities to address key challenges facing older adults in residential care and community settings. Our research explores how immersive VR experiences can combat apathy through personalised reminiscence therapy, reduce loneliness via social VR connections, and improve quality of life for those in palliative care. By creating meaningful virtual experiences tailored to individual needs and backgrounds, we aim to enhance psychological wellbeing, foster social connections, and provide comfort during vulnerable life stages.

Virtual Reality Skills Training

Fri, 20 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Many industries are taking an interest in skills training in VR because of the flexibility and exciting possibilities VR has to offer. However, for VR training to be truly effective, learnt skills must actually transfer from a virtual environment to the real world.

At CAIN Lab, we explore key questions around VR skills transfer: What types of skills transfer most effectively? How can VR training be optimised for real-world application? What individual differences affect transfer success? We are particularly interested in understanding how VR skills transfer works across different populations, including people with intellectual disabilities and Down syndrome, older adults, and individuals undergoing rehabilitation. Through controlled studies and behavioural assessments, we aim to identify the factors that maximise the effectiveness of VR-based learning interventions.