Inspiration
In real emergencies, people often fail to save their loved ones and who they want to protect. It's not because they don't know what to do, but rather because the overwhelming stress makes them freeze and disrupts their ability to recall. We wanted to build training that feels real enough to prepare people for these scenarios in safe and repeatable manner.
What it does
Rewind Rescue XR is a mixed-reality overdose response simulator that guides users through a structured emergency flow. It contains tracked wrist and HUD instructions with haptic feedback to help users face real scenarios and attempt to rescue others under pressure. The visual and auditory details add realistic environmental pressure, creating a muscle memory during the experience to prevent panicking and help act first in real scenarios. Even if the users make mistakes, it allows rewinding to previous checkpoints so that the users can retry their mistakes immediately.
How we built it
We built the experience in Unity using OpenXR and the XR Interaction Toolkit for Quest headsets. A state-driven scenario runner was used to control progression, and the patient condition snapshots were logged to curate feedback and events like breathing behavior. We also built editor automation to generate and wire the full scene quickly.
Challenges we ran into
The biggest challenge we ran to would be configuring checkpoints, which often progressed without prerequisites to the next step. Thankfully, we were able to resolve this by creating save states.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I would integrating spatial tracking is the part we're the most proud of. Instead of going full virtual reality or augmented reality, we have designated different environments within the simulation to reduce opacity for nearby objects for safe practice, while overlaying the surrounding to create realism and pressure to the user. We have also added stereo audio with public noise and strangers of bustling streets (with avoidance behavior) to resemble public scenes.
What we learned
We learned that the most important aspects for helping people prepare is building muscle memory rather than teaching them to remember tasks.
What's next for Rewind Rescue XR (RRX)
We plan to expand our scenario variety by improving assessment and analytics. We plan to add more accurate instructor and debrief tools to help users improve better. Our long term goal is to make a scalable XR training platform that transforms the bystanders to first responders.
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