Care home residents use VR to travel and reminisce

The project allows Australian seniors to revisit special locations and to undertake group travel adventures

Spotted: Australian startup, SilVR Adventures, provides care home residents with a selection of virtual reality experiences. For individuals, the tailored experiences often involve a virtual visit to a location of particular significance. For groups, travel adventures include touring Rome, visiting the pyramids of Egypt and close up examinations of some of the world’s art masterpieces.

SilVR Adventures is designed specifically to overcome limited mobility and help prevent and assuage loneliness. The dynamic fostered by the group tours helps residents to create shared memories and venture into the unknown together. A trained facilitator leads each session, all of which have a maximum of 10 participants. The networked headsets allow for a shared journey, and the facilitator controls the content and experience via tablet. This allows participants to fully engage with the material and with one another.

The SilVR Adventures team says that after multiple uses, many people request more action-oriented journeys as they become accustomed to the motion within VR. Following successes in Victoria, the company is expanding into other states in 2020. Development also includes adding to the library of available experiences and further improving bespoke adventures.

From magnetic chopsticks that help users pick up and hold food, to an autonomous shuttle bus service that calculates the most direct route based on the collective needs of passengers, Springwise has spotted a range of innovations that help people with limited mobility.