New startups show how people can use VR to train their cognitive and motor skills more effectively. Is the often over-hyped technology finally finding the application areas for its big breakthrough in health and fitness? We talk with Amir and Gregory to find out. Both are VR startup founders and speakers at the upcoming FitTech Summit V: Tech or Die. (Get your free ticket!)
VR is “the rich white kid of technology”,argues tech magazine Wired. It continues to be hailed as “the next best thing” and gathering investors, but it’s no more than a glorified gimmick for gamers. Could it be that the often-hyped VR technology is finally finding the application areas for its big breakthrough in health and fitness?
Amir Bozorgzadeh is well-placed to comment on the topic. He runs Virtuleap, a Lisbon-based company whose brain-training app Enhance combines VR and AI to offer cognitive training, based on the latest neuroscience research. “In healthcare, VR is mainstream now. VR is being used for training surgeons in safe environments and VR repair management is FDA-authorized. VR is also used for isolation therapy, mental health issues like depression and schizophrenia, and cognitive health monitoring.”
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VR to educate the mind: "You store memory much more holistically"
VR is an educational superhero for the mind. Existing data around learning using VR confirm this thesis: VR-trained students showed a 250% improvement in their ability to accurately complete a safety procedure. Also, VR-trained surgeons were 29% faster and made 6x fewer errors.
"Unlike 2D, you’re engaging multiple cognitive, learning, experiential, and emotional learning centers all in tandem, which means that the way you store memory is much more holistic. And because it engages more senses at once, it’s a much more powerful way to learn than 2D.”
VR to educate the body: "Every stroke is tracked"
VR is also an educational superhero for the body. Gregory Gettinger, CEO of the Viennese startup VR Motion Learning, is plugging VR into tennis training. Their goal is to enable movements to be efficiently rehearsed and learned so that they can be implemented on a real tennis court. The educational power of his product lies in the collection of exact data. Every stroke is tracked
Gregory explains: “The most important feature we are currently working on is motion similarity modeling. This is where we take your individual biomechanics and use them to construct your ideal forehand. We compare this ideal with your current forehand and show you how you can successively reach this goal.”
➡️ More on VR and fitness at Fittech Summit V: Tech or Die!
A voice from the FitTech Club:
How do you rate VR, Markos Kern?
"No wires, no glasses, no sensors on our bodies: I think VR tech in fitness won't make a complete breakthrough until the technology integrates intuitively. Mixed reality will win in the long run."
Markos Kern, Founder and CEO of the physical gaming console LYMB.iO and member of the FitTech Club, "where visionairies inspire each other".