An immersive approach to visualizing perceptual disturbances

Through their experience with the ICERT REU program at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC), two undergraduate students from the University of Puerto Rico and the University of Florida have initiated a collaboration between their home institutions and TACC exploring the possibility of using immersion to simulate perceptual disturbances. Perceptual disturbances are subjective in nature, and difficult to communicate verbally. Often caretakers or those closest to sufferers have difficulty understanding the nature of their suffering. Immersion provides an exciting opportunity to directly communicate percepts with clinicians and loved ones. Here, we present a prototype environment meant to simulate some of the perceptual disturbances associated with seizures and epilepsy. Following further validation of our approach, we hope to promote awareness and empathy for these often jarring phenomena.