ABOUT

Our experience starts in a waiting room, mimicking the process of a therapy session in real life. Here, a client will pick the client role and a therapist will pick a therapist role. They will be able to personalize their username and get used to being in the VR space before starting the session in the main room.

Our project takes into account having of single person and multiple people, with some standing and some sitting, so we designed a total of three places where we can draw. There are canvases on the wall suitable for group art psychotherapy, canvases on a large table suitable for sitting, and easels suitable for a single person or standing or sitting.

Taking into account the need of therapists to control the whole treatment process, our project has specially designed a therapist’s smart watch. They can use this watch to see the time, be invisible (if some guests need a separate environment to paint, or some therapists need an instructor to be present at the same time during the internship), help customers transfer to the position where they need to paint, erase the canvas, and control the sound of the app.

Tom Smith

NYU Art Therapy Department Grad Student

CMU Entertainment Technology Alumni

Mellon’s undergrad in art and graduate degree with the Entertainment Technology Center. Thanks to the leadership of Brenda Harger and Randy Pausch, he was encouraged to not only be a lead artist, but a producer as well for a highly successful project.  This opened Tom’s eyes to the fact that he could use his art and utilize his other strengths as well.  Tom co-founded a company called SilverTree Media which was the first spinoff company from students of the ETC.  He worked for Disney, Google, Sony, Microsoft, EA and others before creating his own IP.  These games were rated highly on the charts and by critics.  After selling the company, Tom wanted to set off on a new adventure, and combine art and health by becoming an art therapist.  When the question was posed during his graduate studies at NYU, Tom decided to set out on a new journey to combine art therapy with virtual reality for use in his thesis.  The only place he could think of that could help him see his dream through was the ETC. He would like to thank the faculty at the ETC for giving him this extraordinary experience, and to the four students who understood the vision, and saw it through to fruition.  Tom hopes to continue this “V Art Therapy” as he likes to call it.