The ViLoN Lab frequently designs experiments to observe visual-locomotor behavior in natural environments; staircases, hills, corridors and hiking paths. This lets us measure the full complexity of the brain–body system in the environments it evolved to act in, where the informational variables that guide behavior are most fully expressed.

The collection of real-world data also allows us to use our data-driven models to simulate natural behavior. The successes and failures of the modeling work inspire ideas for new experiments; and the modeling cycle starts over again.

We build our experiments in Virtual and Augmented Reality, carefully controlling the visual scenes that human subjects interact with to examine the dynamic relationship between eye motion and the world around it. We measure oculomotor behavior with eye trackers, combining this information with head + full body motion capture to reconstruct the information delivered to the retina over time. We are now expanding into mobile EEG and fNIRS to examine how the brain responds to that information during natural movement.

The ViLoN Lab is dedicated to the principles of open science, making research publications, conference presentations, data sets, and educational materials freely available for everyone.