Beyond Silence

Home – Daily Overview: A centralized dashboard for real-time session and patient overview.
Patient Profile: Track sensory data, progress, and personalized care plans.
Live Command Center: Monitor vitals and adjust XR environments in real time.
Visual Design and Persona
AI Companion Model – Pipi: 3D model of Pipi, designed for calming guidance.
Pipi in AVP Experience: Pipi in Apple Vision Pro during therapy.

Inspiration

Our project was inspired by a background in product design. One team member previously created a physical comfort toy for children with autism to provide emotional support during distress.
This led us to ask: how can we move beyond static tools to create adaptive, immersive support systems?
We aim to address a key social issue—the lack of safe yet realistic environments where children with autism can practice responding to sensory triggers and prepare for real-world situations.

What it does

Beyond Silence is an XR-based therapeutic training system that simulates real-life, anxiety-inducing environments in a controlled setting.
An AI companion supports children through guided animations and interventions, helping them practice calming techniques and build self-regulation through repeated exposure.

How we built it

Our team of four worked across different areas:

XR device setup and environment development
Product design and user experience
Avatar modeling and animation
Backend web prototype development

We integrated immersive XR environments with AI-guided interactions to create a complete therapeutic training experience.

Challenges we ran into

One major challenge was hardware limitation. The 3D scene resolution on Meta Quest was not high enough to deliver realistic environments for effective desensitization training.
We pivoted to Apple Vision Pro (AVP) to achieve higher visual fidelity and a more immersive experience. Also, we encountered technical constraints when working with the PolySpatial + RealityKit pipeline. Certain animations did not execute reliably on AVP, requiring us to rework animation workflows and adjust our implementation to ensure compatibility and smooth performance.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully created a working prototype combining XR simulation and AI-guided intervention
Transformed therapy from passive guidance into active desensitization training
Bridged product design with immersive digital therapy

What we learned

How to balance safety and realism in therapeutic design
Cross-disciplinary collaboration across XR, design, animation, and web development
Adapting quickly to technical limitations and platform changes
Translating a physical product into an interactive digital system