Healium: Your Brainwaves as a VR Input
Healium produced by StoryUp Studios, releases world’s 1st brain-computer interface title for GearVR and Oculus Go
“Are those really my brainwaves?” People frequently ask me that question when we demo our Positivity app on our Healium platform which works with a brain-computer interface, and a standalone VR headset. The new title is powered by an input from your brain’s asymmetrical gamma activity. Only when I gently startle the user and they see the waves jump do they understand that their mind is indeed controlling the immersive story.
Even with diagnostic EEG at a hospital, rarely do you get the opportunity to watch your brainwaves react in real-time. In a VR headset, it’s mesmerizing. As the user watches their pattern move across the screen wearing a brain-sensing headband, it’s as if they’re seeing their neurological reflection for the first time. They aren’t just watching the experience. In a way, they’re feeling it.
BCI or brain-computer interfaces are not new. A UCLA Professor coined the term in a research paper in the 1970’s. Neuro-gaming’s first conference was held in San Francisco in 2013. However, just like with VR headsets, the new lower form factor, ease of use, and portability of these devices that use EEG are enabling content creators like Healium to harness brainpower to drive immersive experiences.
When the left frontal area of the brain is more active than the right, this is associated with feelings of positivity and optimism. It’s essentially a happiness trainer.— Dr. Jeff Tarrant, Psychologist, Neuromeditation Institute & Healium Chief Scientist
In “Positivity”, the more the asymmetrical gamma activity reaches a certain level, the higher you float up the side of a beautiful waterfall. Our platform for positivity and other feelings like empathy and motivation is used in areas of situational, occupational, and workplace stress.
StoryUP, the makers of Healium, started in 2014 as a way to help aging Veterans see their memorials. The Missouri company now has a library of experiences called “Healium” categorized by feelings. Healium’s products are used in enterprise from sales teams to sailors aboard the USS Nimitz in the Pacific Ocean looking to escape reality for some virtual peace. The stories and affirmations span five continents. It’s the first mobile VR experience powered by an EEG headband, and the first BCI title for GearVR. In three pilot studies, some of our experiences quieted brain regions associated with the stress response in as little as four minutes. You can read a handful of other published studies about Healium here: https://www.tryhealium.com/science-behind-healium/
It used to be a brain-computer interface required messy gels, lots of sensors over your scalp, and a technician to set it up. Now an EEG strip attached to a headband is enabling users to navigate media with their minds. We’re NOT using these tools for diagnostics or to cure any medical condition. We’re using BCI as a storytelling input. Much as a computer mouse interacts with media, so too does what Facebook calls the “brain mouse”.
Facebook announced at F8 it’s built a brain mouse that can type 60 words a minute with someone’s thoughts. Companies are already working on neuro-computing operating systems that will allow you to navigate hands-free right or left, click on media, or even scroll with your brainwaves.
Soon, more VR headsets will have brainwave sensors baked into the face masks for the user to control the experience with their thoughts. Mind Maze (photo credit)
is already advertising its headsets with built in sensors. Looxi Labs is already building a neural-analytics platform. Vive earlier this year announced a partnership with Neurable and released the first VR game to work with a BCI. The Mill released Strata this summer which works with an Oculus Rift and the user’s biometrics including heart rate. Although this setup requires a gaming PC and for now a tethered connection, more and more neuro-media experiences like “Positivity” will be coming to mobile and standalone VR headsets. We’re excited to test drive all the different hardware with our brain-powered stories.
Human Media
At the end of “Positivity” if you make it back to the bottom of the waterfall, you’ll have the opportunity to watch a story about a group of aging Veterans who are no longer able to physically travel. They’re using VR to experience their memorials as their health won’t allow them to travel on in-person Honor Flights to Washington, DC.
As our interactions on social media become more negative, this new VR title is an attempt to become more self-aware of the power of positivity. Our thoughts have always had the ability to control environments ……not only in the virtual but the real world as well. If you have a VR headset, please consider spreading your own positivity by sharing your VR headset with an aging Veteran and donating to your local Honor Flight hub. Currently, there are +100 aging Veterans on a waiting list to virtually visit their memorials.
