Tech Briefs Magazine - February 2021 - 56

SPINOFF

Spinoff is NASA's annual publication featuring
successfully commercialized NASA technology. This
commercialization has contributed to the development
of products and services in the fields of health and
medicine, consumer goods, transportation, public safety,
computer technology, and environmental resources.

NASA Brain-Training Technology Makes Smart Glasses
Glasses improve concentration with NASA neurofeedback technology.

A

new pair of smart glasses uses a technique invented at NASA to measure
users' brainwaves and tell them how well
they're paying attention. The technique
is based on neurofeedback - detecting
brainwaves and showing users a readout
of their own brain activity. With practice,
they can then learn to control it.
In the 1990s, a scientist working on
pilot training at NASA's Langley Research
Center came up with a way to translate
brainwave output to characterize attention levels. More and more of a pilot's job
was being done by automated programs
and researchers were becoming concerned that pilots, being less engaged,
would have trouble maintaining focus.
Langley researcher Alan Pope invented
an engagement index that generated a
number from one through six to indicate
the level of engagement. Subjects who
were shown their engagement level while
performing a task were able to learn to
control their concentration and outperformed control groups while reporting a
lower perceived workload.
Clinical psychologist Domenic Greco
worked with biofeedback therapy since
the early 1980s. Around 2000, he and his
son Devon exclusively licensed aspects of
NASA's system, including the engagement index, and founded CyberLearning
Technologies, which uses video games to
help users improve control over their
concentration. The SMART BrainGames
system, released in 2003, made it harder
to control the play as the user's attention
wandered.
In 2013, the team applied the same
neurofeedback technology to smart glasses that users could wear while performing
any task. The glasses would darken as the
user became distracted, providing a realtime incentive to stay focused. Devon
Greco started Narbis (Ambler, PA) to
work on the smart glasses.
While several companies have tried
different twists on neurofeedback, Pope
said this one is different because " there's
an incentive involved - you're motivat-

Concerned that increasing automation in the
cockpit would cause pilots to lose focus,
researchers at Langley Research Center came
up with a way to measure focus and train
them to maintain attention. (Credit: NASA)

ed to make the lenses clear, so it uses
reinforcement. " Greco clarified that the
glasses never go dark enough to interrupt activity but just enough to alert the
user of distraction. Students can use the
glasses while studying or doing schoolwork, helping them stay focused on the
task and training them to control their
attention.
The first prototypes went out to clinics
in 2014 and iterations of the
glasses have been in
testing ever since.

The final product became available for
preorder in late 2019 and started shipping
in August 2020. It includes the glasses,
three sensors that fit on the head, a
Bluetooth amplifier, and a tablet that runs
the software. The Narbis system uses
NASA's engagement index and the accompanying algorithms as well as the dynamic
thresholding of the original technology -
that is, the way the level of difficulty varies
with the user's performance.
Similar technology has drawn interest
from professional athletes and musicians
to enhance performance. Members of
the Italian soccer team that won the
World Cup in 2006 credited their win to
neurofeedback and other biofeedback
training. But the core customer base will
be home users who struggle with attention disorders or just want to improve
their concentration. More than 10 million children in the United States have
been diagnosed with forms of attention
deficit disorder, with a fifth of their parents looking for solutions other than
medication.
Visit https://spinoff.nasa.gov/smart-glassesattention.

The Narbis smart glasses set includes the glasses,
equipped with three brainwave sensors; a
Bluetooth-enabled amplifier on an armband; and
a tablet with training programs. (Credit: Narbis)

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Tech Briefs, February 2021
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