Assessing postural sway in virtual or augmented reality

Inventors

Orr, Eran • Arbel, Tal • Efergan, Aryeh • Weissberger, Omer

Assignees

Vrhealth Ltd • XR Health IL Ltd

Abstract

A virtual or augmented reality based tracking system for assessment of postural sway is provided. In various embodiments, positional data are collected from a user from a headset and/or one or more hand sensors. The positional data is processed to determine the center of mass of the user. In determining of the center of mass, positional data may be given a higher or lower weight compared to other positional data. A virtual reality environment is presented to the user through the headset and may be altered to simulate unbalancing of the user. The raw position data and center of mass are sent to a remote server. A report of user sway is generated from the center of mass. Nausea reduction may be implemented by narrowing a field of vision of the user.

Core Innovation

The invention provides a virtual environment to a user via a virtual or augmented reality system having a head-mounted display, and it assesses postural sway using a center of mass derived from user positional information. Positional information is collected including positional information of the head-mounted display, and a center of mass of the user is determined from the positional information. A user sway metric is then determined from the center of mass.

The user sway metric is determined by computing a standard deviation of the center of mass from a predetermined baseline. The patent further supports collecting positional information beyond the head-mounted display by collecting positional information from first hand sensor and second hand sensor. It also supports determining the user sway metric using respective weights for positional information from the head-mounted display, the first hand sensor, and the second hand sensor, including constraints such as equal weights or a first weight greater than second weight and third weight.

The virtual environment can be altered to simulate unbalancing and to adjust visual input during assessment. A simulated unbalancing is performed by altering the virtual environment by moving a horizon in a predetermined direction. The patent also supports narrowing the user’s field of vision while altering the environment as an additional operation during the assessment context. The overall approach is implemented as a method, a system, and a computer program product that performs the same postural sway assessment framework.

Claims Coverage

The document includes three independent claims (a method, a system, and a computer program product). All three share the same core inventive measurement workflow: collect positional information in a virtual/augmented reality setup using a head-mounted display, determine a center of mass from the positional information, and compute a user sway metric as a standard deviation of the center of mass from a predetermined baseline. Dependent claims refine sensing inputs and the computation, and further narrow or manipulate the virtual environment during assessment.

Across the independent claims, the patent covers assessing postural sway in a virtual or augmented reality environment by deriving a user center of mass from collected head-mounted-display positional information and computing a sway metric as the standard deviation of the center of mass from a predetermined baseline. Additional claim coverage extends the sensing inputs with first and second hand sensors, optionally combines sensor inputs using respective weights with comparative or equality constraints, and further supports specific virtual-environment operations including horizon movement to simulate unbalancing and narrowing the user’s field of vision.

Stated Advantages

Documented Applications