Challenge
Neurotrainer is redefining the fitness and wellness industry using cognitive neuroscience to pinpoint functions in the brain, wake them up, and exercise them, helping users become healthier and more fit.
"They needed help putting their neuroscience exercises into a gamified environment using Virtual Reality to provide a fun, motivating way to train that makes athletes want to enhance their brainpower."
FreeRange XR was enlisted to help design and deploy Neurotrainer as a standalone VR experience for use by College and Professional Athletes.
Approach
What feels fun may not be true to science, so we needed to study, understand, and isolate the variables that would provide benefit to the user while keeping the experience fun and engaging
Met weekly with the client to tease out what was essential and what were artifacts of legacy science (the way it was done before)
Made sure the device and experience would work when used by athletes in athletic departments, not computer labs
Solution
Made an Oculus Go product that could be easily used in gyms and athletic spaces
Designed 5 tests that measure the athletes’ key mental abilities, and a training game designed to improve them.
Created profiles for each individual, with ranking within their organization (people are competitive)
Partnered with a third party to pass performance data using AWS to an administrative dashboard for coaches and trainers.
“We had a unique product with numerous idiosyncratic features. FreeRange seemed to understand what to build with little instruction needed from us."
Jeff Nyquist, CEO of Neurotrainer
Benefits & Outcomes
Neurotrainer VR proved effective and is now seeing explosive growth in the athletic industries
Neurotrainer is being adopted for use by professional sports teams in Basketball, Baseball, Football and Hockey leagues
Neurotrainer VR shows potential in the diagnosis and early detection of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) for athletes using the training.