This project is focused on developing a new technology for upper limb neurorehabilitation combining functional electrical stimulation (FES) and extended reality (XR) - **v-health**. We propose that XR will improve engagement and motivation through immersive gamification, in addition to improved task performance through the use of FES. Together, they will enable an increase in movement repetition, which will improve motor learning and ultimately greater functional recovery. The unique combination of these methods, developed by Valkyrie Industries, can close the brain-to-movement feedback loop, further improving rehabilitation efficiency, reducing time in the hospital, and freeing up the clinician's resources. This project builds upon Valkyrie's patented technology, applied previously to improving fitness routines for healthy individuals. We have been working with therapists from King's College London, Guy's and St. Thomas' Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Hobbs Rehabilitation and many others, to quickly iterate on games and software and develop technology that brings most value both for the stroke survivors and to therapists. Last year, we carried out first in human investigation / user experience study with stroke and spinal cord injury patients and received positive reviews, and now are looking to optimise the software package and run the pilot stage clinical investigation (early feasibility & traditional feasibility investigations) and explore the efficacy of our system. Valkyrie is supported by one of the largest manufacturers of wearable devices in the world, and on the way to obtain CE/FDA certification. Valkyrie's track record in delivering innovation together with the KCL's academic and GSTT's clinical experience ensures the project will bring value to the patients and clinics ASAP. If successful, this project could provide accessible, entertaining, additional arm training for stroke survivors to improve recovery and thereby their independence and quality of life.

Valkyrie Industries is developing a new immersive home-fitness solution using muscle-based haptic wearables. By exploiting our patent in electro-musclular stimulation (EMS) and experience in virtual reality (VR) content creation, we will deliver a system that brings efficient, personalised and engaging fitness routines to people's homes. The design foundations grant will allow us to carry out in-depth customer research, including a human-centered design of low-cost prototype experiences, engagement with stakeholders, and both user-experience and commercial feasibility research. This project falls under the Design for Cross Sector Immersive Projects, applying immersive technologies, haptics and VR gaming, to fitness and healthcare. Valkyrie Industries, after working with heavy-industry partners, is now focusing its attention on the fitness market. Our patented technology allows sensations of weight and resistance in muscles by applying EMS in VR. Recently, VR became a popular destination for home fitness, with games such as Beat Saber and FitXR reaching revenues in the tens of millions of dollars. Additionally, EMS devices such as Slendertone or Sixpad have been extensively used by both professional and amateur athletes, with a renewed interest growing in recent years. We will combine the efficiency of EMS for muscle training and recovery with gamified VR routines, building upon our experience in VR and haptics. The design foundations grant will allow us to understand the motivations of the fitness users, test our market and validate hypotheses, create various simple prototypes and test them with customers. We will use the double-diamond design process to approach the idea of using VR and haptics for fitness. We will: Discover: run workshops with fitness instructors and gym-goers to understand their preferences for the in-house gym experiences. We will understand different training regimes, how different muscle groups are trained etc. Define which exercises can be potentially ported to VR headsets. Based on the stakeholders' interviews, we will formulate the product requirements, the features of the software and hardware systems, the social aspect of the system etc. Develop simple immersive game prototypes using our proprietary wearable haptic technology, and apply it to different muscle groups. We will create 2-4 different simple experiences Deliver: test those prototypes with our focus groups and stakeholders at Here East, gauging the efficiency and engagement of our technology. By the end of the project, we will understand which direction we should take in our further R&D to bring the product closer to market.

Education has been severely disrupted by the current Covid-19 health crisis, with opportunity for direct student-teacher interaction limited. Current solutions to the problem include the use of corporate teleconferencing tools, which are not entirely appropriate for the task of educating minors. There are numerous privacy issues and it is difficult for teachers to directly interact with students, or to monitor their engagement and progress over the course of a lesson. Valkyrie Industries proposes a virtual classroom, a digital tool enabling teachers to provide interactive remote education. The classroom will mirror it's real world counterpart, providing a familiar environment for continued learning amongst Covid-19 disrupted schoolchildren and university students. It will provide all of the tools expected by teachers in a real teaching environment, and enable students to join using devices ranging from mobile and smart tv to VR-ready computers. Building on our expertise in natural, embodied interaction and years of developing virtual environments, Valkyrie Industries are creating a ubiquitous tool appropriate for teaching remotely. In the short-term, this would hugely benefit students whose education is currently on hold with fragmented government oversight on remote learning solutions. In the long-term it would provide a teaching resource that leverages the full potential of virtual learning, enhancing classrooms by offering students and distance learners access to group lessons anytime and anywhere. It can boost engagement, immersing teachers and students in new experiences and defying physical limitations with virtual trips into space, inside a virtual human body or exploring atoms. Ultimately, it could also leverage Valkyrie Industries' patented haptic technology to touch and feel the virtual, such as handling moon rocks, for a truly immersive learning experience. However, for the scope of this project we are focussing on the major issues of specificity and security that curtail the use of current available teleconferencing tools. Our virtual classroom will mirror the performance of a real classroom, enabling teachers to hold their own unique classes or full VR lectures. Virtual environments and objects help to simulate a classroom environment, improving learning retention and class interaction. Teachers will be able to gauge student engagement and to test their progression through mini quizzes, questions and built in monitoring. The simple act of looking at a student in a classroom improves how they will respond to the teacher; it is this embodiment that we intend to simulate.

Project Valkyrie proposes a scalable novel method to deliver realistic feeling of touch for a full immersive VR experience that can enhance applications or create feasible soultions to new ones. We hope to achieve a product that can open doors to new industries that currently suffer relatively low penetration of VR technologies such as medicine, healthcare and education, as a facilitator to their daily job or routine. We believe the sense of touch is a critical bottleneck for VR in these applications. As two Co-founders with expertise in Human Centred Design/Interaction and Material Science/Microfabrication, we have the ability to push this project as an early-stage design project through focus group research, selective ideation and feasibility studies to create a tangible design solution for the market that is predicted to explode in 2017.