Halifax’s MARS VR Lab, which is developing a virtual reality hardware and software suite that gamifies the process of teaching children how to operate motorized wheelchairs, has joined the council that will set industry standards for the metaverse.

Founded last month, The Metaverse Standards Forum is meant to serve as an international working group setting technical standards for the industry via collaboration between companies in the space.

The metaverse is jargon for the virtual worlds users inhabit during multiplayer artificial reality games — a growing industry that Silicon Valley giants like Facebook have bet heavily on.

MARS VR, meanwhile, is the developer of the XPOD, which is a virtual reality headset and joystick combination that allows users to interact with a fantasy world that subtly teaches them the fine motor skills and spacial awareness they need to control a wheelchair.

The company is in the process of conducting clinical tests with the help of the IWK Health Centre’s Dr. Jordan Sheriko and occupational therapist Scott Thieu.

Chief Executive Daniel Baldwin co-founded MARS with software engineer Shawn Greene, now CTO, in 2019. After they finish developing their wheelchair training product, they also plan to use virtual reality to gamify a host of other healthcare processes. As of February, their company employed 11 people.