INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Virtual reality could be the future of treating drug addiction.

Researchers at Indiana University created the Indianapolis-based startup Relate XR. It’s doing something that sounds like it’s from a sci-fi novel: creating virtual reality clones of patients for interactions.

Dr. Brandon Oberlin, a co-founder of Relate XR, is the brainchild behind the addiction treatment. “It was literally one of those eureka moments late in the lab one night.”

To execute his vision he teamed up with Andrew Nelson, the other co-founder of Relate XR, to design the virtual world and create the virtual clones of patients. It starts with a headshot. “We pass that into a system that uses AI (artificial intelligence) that helps us get the starting point for the likeness of the 3D avatar, then we go through a couple of procedures to age them,” Nelson said.

They also use AI to clone someone’s voice, so their future virtual selves talk to them in their own voice, giving them advice and showing them what their future could look like if they stay off drugs.

Nelson said, “We’re able to generate a pretty good clone of their voice and they can speak to themselves naturally.”

Oberlin said, “I like to think of it as a virtual time travel.”

The target patients are people who have recently tested negative for drug use. “That’s a really high-risk period where overdoses are often fatal, and drug use can return in an extreme way,” Oberlin said.

Izzy Branam, chief executive officer of Relate XR, describe how it might work. “This would be something that the clinician would prescribe part of a discharge toward the end of their inpatient or outpatient treatment, and they’d take home a headset and use it for the time that’s prescribed by that clinician, and then send the headset back.”

The goal is for insurance to cover the treatment.

The developers are recruiting for a clinical trial where they’ll scan the brains of people who use the technology. They’ll use that data to try and get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which could happen in the next two and a half years.

People interested in participating in the study can call 317-278- 5012.