Help reduce sensory overload in autistic people using HoloLens, for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network

A HoloLens Application: Autistic people everywhere experience sensory overload from all five of their senses, and technology can help reduce it. For hearing, for example, we have noise cancelling headphones. It's time we did something to reduce visual sensory overload for autistic people, and this is where Hyperfocus comes in. Partnering with the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Hyperfocus is an app for HoloLens that will cover up distractions in the wearer's field of view and emphasize important elements in their field of view, such as faces and street signs. By increasing focus on important elements and decreasing focus on unimportant elements, Hyperfocus enables autistic people to experience their world in the best way possible, which enables them to do more. Autistic people will avoid situations that could result in sensory overload. By reducing this possibility, Hyperfocus empowers autistic people to expose themselves to more situations than they ever thought possible.

The inspiration comes from Natalie Euley's own life. As an autistic person, she experiences sensory overload of all kinds, including visual. When she first heard about HoloLens, her first instinct was that I could use this to make the world easier to look at. While HoloLens at the moment is rather big and bulky, we know that it's in the works to make it a wearable technology that you can wear all the time, and that's where the potential of Hyperfocus comes into play. She is passionate about the mission of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, and this project aligns with their mission of empowering autistic people to be more independent and do whatever they are capable of, no matter what the world throws at them.