Emotional connection

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Virtual reality (VR) is not exactly new technology anymore, but, to all intents and purposes, we’re still at the early adoption phase of its product life-cycle.

The hardware has remained expensive, and this has been one factor holding back wider take-up. But, inevitably, as prices come down and the experience becomes more ‘real’, adoption rates are expected to rise.

Estimates on the size of the market varies, but Fortune Business Insights predicts the global VR market will reach $120bn by 2026 – compared with $7bn in 2018.

At South Korean AI start-up Looxid Labs, work is already under way on taking VR to the next level, by integrating biometrics into a VR, augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) platform.

It has developed a user interface – Looxid Link – that can connect people’s minds to VR. It works by incorporating brainwave sensor accessory modules and its software development kit (SDK), so a person’s brainwaves can be measured while they’re in a VR environment. It measures aspects such as relaxation, attention and brain activity, as well as types of brainwave frequencies. 

Brian Yongwook Chae, CEO of Looxid Labs, describes how the connection works. “A head-mounted display (HMD), like you get on all VR headsets, is a vital part of the immersive VR experience. Since the HMD is in contact with the forehead to acquire biometrics, it’s easier to get users’ cognitive and emotional states, such as their attention/relaxation level.”

Chae’s background is in brain-computer interface, which is why he first considered integrating biometrics – such as the eye and brain data – into the VR/AR platforms. Then, he says, it was all down to the data.

“For a new digital platform to become popular, you have to consider both the characteristics of the digital platform, such as what data to collect – log data or location data – and how to analyse the user to give personalised content that improves the experience,” he says. “As VR/AR industries came into the spotlight for gaming, commerce, healthcare and education, it became necessary to develop the right data and data analytics that are compatible with VR environments.”

By integrating biometrics, VR companies can use their better understanding of the user and their reactions, and apply this to create a more interactive VR experience. For example, VR game companies can associate the player’s cognitive and emotional states – such as attention – with a superpower; so, the more the player pays attention, the better they can lift an object with their mind.

Chae says: “A lot of what goes on in the mind is at a subconscious level.” He mentions specifically how that plays out in an automotive example. “You can see the types of reactions consumers are having [with the VR car clinic] to different parts of the car. Measuring and analysis via electroencephalograms (EEG) moves beyond ‘what’ to ‘why’, by helping you see what sort of brain activity is used at these stages, telling you about what is shaping the decisions of a consumer.”

Other real-life applications include in healthcare, where clinical biofeedback has been used to treat stress, anxiety and depression. It’s been employed, too, for goalkeeper training, where workload and engagement indexes during the VR training can be analysed using EEG signals to improve performance, while it has also been used to help understand how a shopper chooses products in store.

When choosing between brands, a shopper’s brain is firing millions of tiny electrical impulses; by mapping different activity areas, EEG sensors detect which parts of the mind are active during shopping. “VR research draws some compelling neuroscientific insights about what is going on in a shopper’s mind,” Chae says.

So how accurate are the brainwave feeds, and how exactly do they work?

“The brain’s neurons and synapses are interconnected, forming a vast network. Neurons generate an electrical field, which is strong enough to spread through tissue and bone and can be measured from the scalp. Each neuron is composed of a body and dendrite, making it possible for neurons to communicate with each other. When the brain reacts, these neurons release chemicals, called neurotransmitters, to neighbouring neurons. Neural networks construct information and create an electrical field through the changes in the chemical balance in the brain. The sensors in EEG machines quickly pick up these electric fields in a very precise manner, which are later used by amplifying these recordings.

“EEG allows us to record the voltage changes for post-analysis that can help us determine if there are certain incongruencies in patterns, and understand how our brains operate and react under certain conditions. As EEG monitors the time course of electrical activity generated by the brain, you can interpret which areas of the cortex are responsible for processing information at a given time,” says Chae.

When it comes to any technological leap like this, it also requires the hardware and software companies to get on board. To date, one of the VR headset manufacturers, Vive, has shown interest in Looxid’s technology and selected it for the latest wave of its accelerator programme. And its work with software partners is ongoing – one current application is with NextUs, providing VR treatment for occupational accident trauma for firefighters with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Chae believes that combining biometrics with VR is a “game-changer” and will significantly boost VR sales, which he thinks have so far been sluggish because of the expense and/or discomfort of the VR headset.

So what areas will be most likely to embrace VR/AR in the future?

“It is difficult to say. However, as VR can give users immersion and presence, medicine and psychology are embracing it to examine various clinical therapies – such as exposure therapy to treat some anxiety disorders, distraction therapy to reduce the pain of dental procedures, and more.

“VR will be a promising tool for medical treatment as those are difficult and costly to be controlled in a real-world setting.”

This article was first published in the April 2020 issue of Impact.