The EXPERIENCE project achieved significant scientific, technological, and dissemination milestones. The EXPERIENCE Wearable System was devised in the first 18 months of the action, allowing for the automatic creation of virtual reality environments through tablet and/or wearable camera, supported by a performing laptop in a backpack. In addition, ad-hoc electronics was devised to synchronise camera and physiological data recordings from brain and heart to estimate the subject’s emotional state while scanning the scene. The final system was validated technologically and scientifically, integrating hardware, strong data encryption, and compliance with safety standards. Immersive VR environments compatible with fMRI were deployed and tested in real neuroimaging contexts, while a modular AI-driven 3D reconstruction pipeline was completed, enabling scene editing and real-time physiological biofeedback.
Extensive neuroscientific studies were conducted, including hundreds of healthy individuals as well as participants experiencing depression, revealing new neurophysiological markers of time perception via neural and cardiovascular signals. Research on cybersickness also demonstrated novel approaches to its reduction through neuromodulation, highlighting potential clinical applications. A unified multimodal analysis framework was developed, combining neuroimaging and wearable data, and state-of-the-art results were achieved in neural-activity-based semantic image reconstruction using advanced AI models.
Clinical translation was supported by the development of a diagnostic VR system that classified depressive symptoms with up to 80% accuracy, alongside the validation of two VR-based therapeutic protocols (HRV biofeedback and time perception recalibration), both surpassing clinical effectiveness thresholds.
From an innovation and impact perspective, six Key Exploitable Results were identified, with an exploitation roadmap and market opportunity analysis securing potential industrial engagement. Dissemination was strong and impactful, with more than a hundred peer-reviewed publications in scientific journal articles and papers published in conference proceedings, the achievement of six major milestones, and active visibility through conferences, workshops, and public science events.
