A Virtual Reality Tool for Eating Disorders and Obesity

The project will investigate the feasibility of transforming Body Aspect's 3D body scanning technology into a multisensory virtual reality (VR) application for obesity and eating disorders. The project will investigate the user requirements for the application and clarify the technical challenges.

Eating disorders and obesity are both disturbances associated with eating behaviour, weight, and body image, and a growing body of research supports the consideration of 3D body imaging and VR for these issues. Body Aspect has conducted its own studies on gym members to assess how 3D image assessment can support weight management, and has presented to several eating disorders teams, receiving positive feedback.

A core aspect of this project is to explore the use of 3D image capture for creating personalised full body avatars. Virtual humans in VR applications tend to be abstract or approximate representations of real people. However, for the proposed applications there is an intuitive case for considering the use of virtual humans that are realistic in body size and shape.

Workshops will be conducted with practitioners and 'experts by experience' from both fields to examine different components of the proposed applications and, in parallel, core technical challenges will be addressed. The project team includes collaborators from the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University.

The project could lead to a new tool that will increase the prospect of users achieving a healthy weight and speed up recovery. There are potential financial benefits to the NHS and the wider benefits will be a reduction in obesity and improved outcomes for patients with eating disorders. The technology will have relevance to body image disorders, in general, and could have value in creative industries such as fashion design.