Japan is said to be living head of it's time and are known for it's technology and deep tech application , I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to work on one such forward-thinking project, designing alongside a brilliant team of developers, researchers, and engineers.

From November 5-6, I assisted the CEO, Anna Shimafuji of representing NeuralPort Inc. who are currently in the middle of another fund raising round at the Smart City Expo, alongside my collegue in marketing to showcase the products under Japan pavilion as well as one of the portfolio from JETRO.

While Neuralport works on many other products such as Zone Z and Zen Eye Glass , today i'm sharing the design process and approach from one of their product that i have worked with, Zen Eye Pro.

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Designing Zen Eye Pro: Visualizing Mental States with Eye Tracking

Zen Eye Pro is a tool that lets you see your mental state by tracking stress through eye movements. Developed with an algorithm based on research into how eye movements can reveal stress levels. As an XR Designer, my role is to focus on creating an intuitive interface based on the research to that guides users their experience and understanding insights from the data .

Why understanding stress / tension some people call it  matter ? Stress is a natural reaction of the body, resulting from demanding circumstances where the brain activates the “fight or flight” mode. In sports, one application of NeuralPort is to find the optimal level of stress that triggers the brain to increase the level of fight to be able to compete effectively. By identifying this level and correlating it with actual on-field performance, athletes can have personalized training that ensures they maintain that optimal stress level for peak performance before entering the field.

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At the moment, we’re using the Pico 4 Enterprise headset for Zen Eye Pro, but we’re also planning to integrate the experience into the Apple Vision Pro in the future (timeline TBA)

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So, How might we provide user with good viewing of the Stress Check Application ?

Design Thinking

A while ago in XRExpo , Stuttgart i presented design framework on how to design mixed reality experience . In designing this application i used the same approach , but with a little tweak of VR Experience instead of mixed reality experience to put together initially what we will be needing within the scenes to reach the user goal.
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UI Approach : Gaze Interaction for User Comfort and Precision

To ensure comfortable gaze interactions, we keep them within a ±60-degree angle, allowing users to engage with the virtual environment without strain, even during extended use. In this case, I’m using gaze for interaction, not navigation. However, if gaze were used for navigation, I would set the gaze angle at 10° - 20° below the horizon for natural movement. For precise selections, I add a Gaze-Based Selection Precision layer, setting a 10-degree activation angle to ensure accurate, responsive feedback.

Key Findings from Testing:To maintain comfort and prevent strain, the following should be avoided:

• Gaze angle greater than 10° above the horizon
• Gaze angle greater than 60° below the horizon
• Neck rotation exceeding 45° above the horizon

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Low Fidelity Prototype in ShapesXR

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