Initial Grocery Store - Overstimulation
Grounding Meditation Scene
Final Grocery Store Scene - After Grounding

Inspiration

Our inspiration stems from the "Too Much Information" (TMI) campaign by the National Autistic Society. We wanted to move beyond just showing sensory overload on a screen and instead allow people to experience the transition from chaos to calm. We were driven by the question: How can we use VR not just to simulate a disability, but to simulate the success of a coping mechanism?

What it does

NeuroShop is an immersive VR "sensory bridge." It places the user in a high-intensity convenience store environment where lighting, sound, and visual clarity are tied to the user’s internal state. The Conflict: Users experience "sensory storm" conditions—strobe-like flickering, aggressive audio hums, and dizzying visual distortion.

The Resolution: By following a rhythmic breathing guide (tracked via headset motion), users engage in a 5-breath countdown.

The Result: As the user regulates their breathing, the environment physically transforms: lights stabilize, noise fades into calm music, and the visual "fog" clears, leading them into an "Easy Shop" state.

How we built it

We utilized Unity 6 and the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) to create a reactive world.

Sensory Manager: A central "brain" script that controls a "Stress Slider," linking Post-Processing effects (Bloom, Chromatic Aberration) and audio levels.

Biometric Proxy: A C# BreathSensor that translates the vertical movement of the VR headset into an inhale/exhale detection system.

Visual Scripting & Shaders: We used custom transparency shaders for "Ghostly Hands" to represent the user's presence without adding to the visual clutter.

Challenges we ran into

Spatial Anchoring: We struggled with the "stuck-to-eyes" phenomenon, where the store environment felt like a 2D sticker rather than a 3D space. We had to deep-dive into XR Origin offsets and near-clip plane math to fix the perspective.

Performance vs. Intensity: Achieving the "painful" 1000-intensity light flicker without causing VR motion sickness or frame-rate drops was a delicate balancing act.

Pipeline Conversion: Migrating assets from Built-in to URP mid-project to access the visual effects we needed for the "TMI" effect.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

The "Aha!" Moment: Successfully linking the physical act of breathing to the visual clarity of the scene. When the countdown hits zero and the store "settles," the relief is palpable.

Visceral Realism: Replicating the sensory gating failure experienced by many neurodivergent individuals using only standard VR hardware.

User Agency: Moving the user from "environmental victimhood" to "physiological agency" through a simple, elegant interaction.

What we learned

We learned that in VR, less is often more. While we started with intense chaos, we realized the true power of the project was in the contrast—the silence and stability that follows the breathing exercise. We also gained significant technical knowledge in XR camera stacking and the importance of URP material optimization for performance-heavy simulations.

What's next for NeuroShop

Hardened Biometrics: Integrating actual heart-rate monitors (HRV) for more precise stress tracking. The Cognitive Load Test: Introducing a "Shopping List" task where users must find items during the chaos to measure how sensory overload impacts real-world decision-making.

Multi-Location Modules: Expanding beyond the shop to schools, public transport, and workplace environments to create a full suite of empathy-training tools.