
KALA-ART THERAPY
THE IDEA
The Kala Room (Sanskrit for "art") was designed as an art-therapy–style experience to help users overcome creative blocks and stress through self-expression. Inspired by practices that encourage inner-child play and affirmation, Kala allows users to “visualize your emotions and describe them” in a safe virtual space. The design intent was to kindle joy and self-love by literally turning the user’s feelings into art. For people dealing with acute stress or creative anxiety, the Kala room creates a positive feedback loop: affirmations and imaginative prompts lead to beautiful visuals that reinforce confidence
Technical Implementation
Technical Stack & Core Technologies:
Unity 3D with Universal Render Pipeline (URP)
OpenAI DALL-E API for AI-powered image generation
RESTful API Architecture for cloud communication
Autodesk Maya for 3D environment modeling
Voice Recognition System for natural language input
Kala is built in Unity, using 3D models and environments created in Autodesk Maya. A spatial museum/gallery-like space was crafted to display artwork. Key technologies and techniques included:
Generative AI
Integration with the OpenAI DALL·E API allows the room to generate unique images on demand. Users speak a description of their emotion or idea, and DALL·E creates an image that fills a blank frame in the room. This relies on a speech-to-text pipeline (Meta’s Voice SDK) to capture the user’s words.
VR Interaction
Teleport locomotion (via the VR controller joystick) lets users easily navigate the gallery.
Aiming at different empty picture frames (rendered as Unity GameObjects) and holding the controller trigger captures the user’s voice input. Pressing a “generate” button sends the text prompt to the AI backend.