Toward scalable VR therapy solutions for individuals with Autism Spectrum Conditions: Challenges and Opportunities

The usage of VR technology to allow instructors and therapists to offer safe, repeatable and diversifiable learning environments for individuals with Autism Spectrum Condition has recently bloomed in scientific literature. However, despite the encouraging results regarding the clinical effectiveness of this approach to relieve their social anxiety and improve their social & emotional skills, several challenges are still to be addressed from both technological and clinical perspectives to achieve its full potential as a digital therapy. In this paper a description of the most critical challenges together with a suggested set of intertwined research directions is provided. Moreover, a description of the main achievements obtained out of an Innovation project aimed at tackling a subset of these challenges is provided, with a short discussion on the preliminary results obtained on a recent experimental pilot.