Project Overview

A Brain-Computer Interface psychotherapy game design and a business pitch

People are suffering from anxiety, and increasing concerns of mental health have emerged especially during the global pandemic period under quarantine/lockdown and social-distancing policies. Conventional clinical treatment is both time and financial costly and meditation practice lacks instant perceptible positive feedback by its nature. Therefore we decided to design a digital product that can help people who are grounded to relieve themselves at home. We interviewed 6 peers and collected one observation story who have already experienced strict lockdown mostly back in China in early 2020. We also interviewed one psychologist who had witnessed the events and counselled many patients. A literature review of state of art technologies and products was conducted. A market research of BCI gaming was meanwhile carried out to verify the potential of such product.

According to the user, technology and market research, we designed WANDERMIND, a BCI (Brain-Computer Interface) based mindfulness training game consisting of a headset mockup and a PC video game. The design was eventually presented along with a business pitch.

KEYWORDS: Brain-Computer Interface, Business Development

COURSE: Design project + Business Development Lab

DURATION: Jan.2020 - Apr.2020

MY ROLE: User research, Game Level Design, UX/UI design, Animation

PART I

THE GAME

People are anxious

It is reported by WHO that a total population of around 264 million have anxious disorders, taking up to 3.6% of the gross population on this planet[1].

The anxiety levels of individuals are different and they fall onto a broad spectrum of severity, though most of them are far from being clinicaly diagnosed as Anxiety Disorder and in desperate need of medical intervene. This leads to two results, first, people may be unaware of how severe their situations are; second, people tend to be unwilling to go to clinics.

[1]WHO, Depression and Other Common Mental Disorders Global Health Estimates https://www.who.int/mental_health/management/depression/prevalence_global_health_esti mates/en/

Conventional solutions

The most commen two conventional treatments for anxiety are psychological clinic and meditation.

Only 36.9% of people reported going to clinics. The reasons people avoid going to a psychologist are diverse[2]. The couseil is usually timely and financially costly. And the lockdown may even cease more people from stepping out of the door.

Meditation is also considered as one of the self-practices to relieve oneself from stress. Yet the to make full use of meditation, one needs certain practice and often lacks instant feedback.

[2] 10 Reasons Why People Refuse to Talk to Therapists https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/i-hear-you/201710/10-reasons-why-people-refuse -talk-therapists

User Research

By the time the research was carrying out, China has undergone the first wave of Covid-19 burst out and gradually dismissed the lockdown, meanwhile the policy was adopted by a growing number of other governments worldwide. So we decided to interview people in China and ask for their experience during the lockdown. We interviewed six people(P1-6) at an average age of 25.2, a psychologist who has counselled quite a few people and collected one story of observation(P7).

All subjects have gone through a certain period of lockdown, from one week to two months. All have reported concerns of their study or work, yet no one reported that they have expressed severe symptoms of anxiety. Many mentioned that they would play video games to kill time when feeling bored and one articulated that he played online video game with his friends more than ever(P4).

We interviewed the psychologist as a proxy to support us with more objective phenomenon records or figures that could be complementary facts to our interview results. We had confirmed from the psychologist that there was a rising number of anxiety among people since the lockdown. She had encountered cases with fear of being in a small room, conflict between family members, worries of one’s health, problems with kids, and most importantly the economic dilemma, and pressure from work especially medical personnels.

As suggested by the psychologist, people who feel anxious can try mindfulness training to help relieve themselves. Mindfulness training lets people to focus on their presence, their own breath, mind flow and body, and be clearly aware of the fact that most of the anxiety and fears are imaginary and their lives may not be threatened directly right at the moment. So that they can relieve from the fight-flight reaction, calm down soon and concentrate again. This is a practical non-therapeutic treatment that people can practice by themselves easily at home.

Therefore, we decided to design a digitalised solution to help people perform mindfulness training at home by themselves.

How to relieve fast and with fun?

A mindfulness game is proven to help

As we suppose, in a household context, people will get bored and less self-motivated when using a serious therapeutic software that follows rigorous treatment session. We decided to move on with the direction of serious game and gamification, and found relative evidence. There is growing evidence[3] for the efficacy of mindfulness-based programs in promoting well-being [4], reducing depression [5], and preventing relapse in depression [6]. There's also research[7] that support the positive effect of serious games on treating mental disorders, either as stand-alone intervention or as part of the psychotherapy.

Based on the discovery above, we decided to design a mindfulness game so that user can train their mind while playing.

Proven efficacy of Games in Psychotherapies in clinical treatment of mental disorders

Proven benefits of Mindfulness Training in stress relief

[3] Mani, Madhavan, Kavanagh, David, Hides, Leanne, & Stoyanov, Stoyan (2015) Review and evaluation of mindfulness-based iPhone apps. JMIR mHealth and uHealth, 3(3), Article number: e82 1-10.

[4] Irving JA, Dobkin PL, Park J. Cultivating mindfulness in health care professionals: a review of empirical studies of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). Complement Ther Clin Pract 2009 May;15(2):61-66. [doi:10.1016/j.ctcp.2009.01.002] [Medline: 19341981]

[5] Khoury B, Lecomte T, Fortin G, Masse M, Therien P, Bouchard V, et al. Mindfulness-based therapy: a comprehensive meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 2013 Aug;33(6):763-771. [doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2013.05.005] [Medline: 23796855]

[6] Chiesa A, Serretti A. Mindfulness based cognitive therapy for psychiatric disorders: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychiatry Res 2011 May 30;187(3):441-453. [doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.08.011] [Medline: 20846726]

[7] Eichenberg C, Schott M. Serious Games for Psychotherapy: A Systematic Review. Games Health J. 2017 Jun;6(3):127-135. doi: 10.1089/g4h.2016.0068. PMID: 28628385.

What's our deliverable?

We designed WANDERMIND, the BCI-based mindfulness game which contains a customised BCI headset and a training game on PC.

Persona

Who will be our user

Patrick, 25,

lives alone in the apartment;

feels anxious and depressed from time to time during the lockdown and doesn't want to go to the psychologist though;

is a game lover and willing to try with niche technology.

Tech 101

A glance at the BCI technique behind it.

What is BCI?

BCI, Brain-Computer Interface, is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and a machine. Within our scope of research and design, we will focus on the application of Electroencephalography (EEG), which is a typical non-invasive electrophysiological monitoring method to record electrical activity of the brain. Through the application of machine learning with statistical temporal features extracted from the frontal lobe, EEG brainwave data has shown high levels of success in classifying mental states(Relaxed, Neutral, Concentrating)[8].

[8]Bird, Jordan J.; Manso, Luis J.; Ekart, Aniko; Faria, Diego R. (September 2018). A Study on Mental State Classification using EEG-based Brain-Machine Interface. Madeira Island, Portugal: 9th international Conference on Intelligent Systems 2018. Retrieved 3 December 2018.

Picture credit to: https://www.tasmeemme.com/en/store-items/electroencephalography-vector-icon-brain-wave-measurement-human-head-in-eeg-cap/?item=10110232740

Two control techniques we adopt

In the game, the player will learn to control the avatar and other tricks with her/his own mind. There are two types of control, Neuro-feedback(NF) and Motor Imagery(MI).

1 Neuro-feedback control

The Neurofeedback control monitors user's mental status, and user gives control commands by either relaxing or concentrating. By anaylizing the amplitude of α wave and β wave, the level of relaxation or concentration will be detected.

2 Motor Imagery Control

Motor imagery is a mental process by which an individual rehearses or simulates a given action. When in Motor Imagery control mode, player uses imagined body part movement to trigger designated in-game command.

This requires a training session where user has to memorise the mapping of commands and record the corresponding mental reaction in advance. For example, when the user is thinking of lifting up right hand, the headset will read the mental process and map to the command of avatar's right turn.

The BCI headset

Based on the selected BCI control methods, we designed this 8-electrode headset mockup. The electrodes are placed inside the top arc of the headset monitoring the brainwave activity of general mental status and motor imagery. A light strip is installed in the headband to indicate the recognition of mental status.

What Patrick will experience in the game?

On setup

As for the first time playing, Patrick will first go through a training and recording phase.

Setup1 getting familiar with Neuro-feedback control

Setup2 recording for the 6 commands of Motor Imagery

On playing

By alternatively meditating and concentrating, Patrick will achieve mindfulness power, with which he can take back control over his emotion and mind.

Meditation

The more relaxed Patrick is, the faster the avatar moves.

Concentration

Patrick has to concentrate to unlock and solve the node game.

Mindfulness Power

Full control over your mind and emotion

Game levels

Patrick will control his avatar to wander in the WANDERMIND world.

The game consists of five levels, represented by five different maps, of which there are prairie, dessert, forest, mountains and ice field.

On each level, the player will experience an adventure starting from and ended up at home.

On each level

Along the trail, Patricks first meditate to let the avatar run. When encountering a node, Patrick has to concentrate to unlock and enter the node game. In the node game, Patrick will concentrate in another way, which is to use motor imagery to interact with the game. Upon completion of the node game, the avatar will move on along the trail again. When all the nodes are passed, the level is then finished.

Video demo

A video prototype of Patrick's first journey in the game

PART II

THE BUSINESS PLAN

To sustain our business, we move from game-as-a-product to service-as-a-product.

What's the market potential?

BCI market is growing fast and vast

Potential markets are booming

Our roadmap to scale up

From game-as-product to service-as-product

As a startup, we will scale up our business by three steps.

By the moment(April 2020), we have completed the mockup prototype and we are approaching the end of a viable prototype.
The second step in the near few months is that we sell our game software and hardware as a whole product.
In the coming year, we will launch our BCI development platform and our mid-ware package. The major revenue model will transform from selling products to selling service of development platform and licensing mid-ware development kit.

Our sales strategy phase I