I-Corps: Adaptable Virtual Reality Visual Spatial Training Technology

Northern Michigan University, Marquette MI

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to provide brain training and assessment solutions for a variety of commercial uses through an adaptable virtual reality visual spatial training technology. These include treatments for mild traumatic brain injury, cognitive decline and vision decrements as well as improvements/training in driver safety, academic performance, and police and armed forces performance and safety. The back-end program analytics will be able to learn from large numbers of users and potentially develop new solutions for novel customer problems. With future incorporation of machine learning, the technology could become highly personalized to each user's unique needs. These future markets represent a growing trend of brain fitness and brain performance products. The technology uniquely partners with the huge emerging markets of virtual reality, micro technology and quantifiable-self industries. This I-Corps project addresses the need for a technology that continually challenges functional and cognitive brain patterns in a safe environment. This innovation provides a novel way to assess additional brain systems which are more sensitive to brain injury, thus offering more perceptive assessment of mild traumatic brain injury. The technology is a series of tasks controlled by an algorithm that demands the use of the occipital and parietal lobes as well as the attentional networks. The algorithm efficiently determines the user's current ability. It also provides a novel ability to switch from assessment to rehabilitation. New research indicates that the injured brain may not recover as quickly with the traditional "wait and see" method compared to a protocol that requires neuronal activity. A pilot study showed improvements in balance, attention and reaction time in collegiate athletes. Additional research demonstrated improvements in low vision children over several training sessions. This technology challenges the brain to complete familiar tasks in a virtual reality world where the chance of re-injury during the recovery phase is eliminated.