Cross-disciplinary experiments exploring how hospitalized and elderly people may benefit from virtual immersion in natural environments through sound and virtual reality.
About the Program
AELab's Health & Wellbeing program brings together researchers from acoustic ecology, medicine, psychology, and engineering to investigate the therapeutic potential of immersive natural soundscapes for people who cannot easily access the outdoors.
Research in environmental psychology has shown that exposure to natural environments — even virtual or auditory representations — can reduce stress, lower blood pressure, and improve mood and cognitive function. The Health & Wellbeing program applies AELab's expertise in spatial audio, field recording, and virtual reality to deliver these benefits in clinical and care settings.
Using the EcoRift VR platform and the Listen(n) sound archive, the program designs and tests interventions for hospitalized patients and elderly residents of care facilities — delivering rich, immersive nature experiences to those for whom the natural world has become inaccessible.
Research
A substantial body of research demonstrates that exposure to natural soundscapes — even recorded and delivered via headphones — reduces cortisol levels and self-reported stress in clinical and laboratory settings.
Attention restoration theory predicts that exposure to natural environments supports recovery from directed attention fatigue — improving cognitive performance after demanding tasks or prolonged illness.
AELab's combination of full 360° visual recording with head-tracked spatial audio (via EcoRift) represents a significant advance over prior research using flat images or mono audio recordings.
The program is especially focused on populations for whom mobility limitations, geography, or illness create barriers to outdoor experience — ensuring that the benefits of nature are not reserved for those who can easily access it.
We are actively seeking clinical and research partners to extend this work. If you work in healthcare, gerontology, or environmental psychology and are interested in collaboration, please get in touch.
Contact AELab