Himanshu Chaturvedi
Head of Engineering
Himanshu (call him H) is a Medical Virtual Reality specialist and brings years of research and engineering experience in VR in medical and commercial domain. His work has been published in the top VR journals.
He believes that the immersive power of VR can bring substantial improvements in people’s health and life-style by motivating them to stay on the right track. He loves working on early stage projects which allow him to significantly contribute towards the shape of the product and is leading the engineering efforts at BehaVR.
Himanshu holds a Master’s in Computer Science from Clemson University specializing in Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality and a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from University of Pune.
What do you find most inspiring or powerful about VR?
Well executed VR experiences have the power to make you forget about space and time. I remember when I first started using roomscale 6dof applications, I would take off the headset and be really surprised by where I was in my room compared to where I had started. VR apps can be so engaging that you can totally forget about your physical surroundings and also very easily lose track of how much time you’ve spent in it. That’s why you see people running into walls, smashing their TVs and being scared of heights knowing very well that they are standing on ground. It’s really effective at tricking your brain with an alternative reality and is the most powerful medium to achieve that.
Why is a better future for mental healthcare important to you?
Aaron once mentioned something that has stuck with me. To paraphrase, he said when you are healthy, you have a hundred problems but when you’re sick you only have one problem. Being unhealthy affects one’s life to such a great extent that you stop caring about everything else and just want to get better. This is something I’ve noticed myself many times as well. That’s why it’s so important to stay healthy and mental health is a huge part of that equation. I strongly believe that to lead a productive and fulfilling life, one needs to take care of their mental health and I want to help as many people as I can with it.
What’s your superpower?
I have a pretty high threshold for dealing with uncertainty and organizing randomness.
What’s a hobby, habit or ritual that puts you at ease or strengthens your mental health?
First thing I do every morning is open all the blinds in the apartment and look outside. Nothing like a beautiful morning to get the day started on the right note!