VR perceptual training in ice hockey
VR training for ice hockey players: learning to see the goal through the eyes of the puck.
+15% perceptual performance after a single 15-minute session
How the brain perceives and controls the moving body.
We investigate how humans perceive and control their movements. Based at the Department of Neuroscience and Movement Science of the University of Fribourg, we combine experimental neuroscience, motion analysis and immersive technologies to understand how the brain interacts with the body and the physical world.
A cartwheel recorded in our motion capture room: 18 points of light at the joints of the tracked skeleton, and their trails. That is all the brain needs to see a person. Drag to turn around the body.
What we ask
How do we know how fast we are moving?
Motion perception
How the brain integrates visual, vestibular and proprioceptive signals into a coherent sense of self-motion. Using psychophysics and virtual reality, we study speed perception, spatial orientation and multisensory integration.
How does the body keep a movement on course when the world pushes back?
Motor control
How the nervous system plans and adjusts movements under physical constraints and unexpected perturbations. From eye–hand coordination to whole-body balance and locomotion, with 3D kinematics, EMG, kinetics and oculomotor recordings.
Can we train what athletes see, the way we train their muscles?
VR and AR for sport and health
Immersive training systems that combine human–avatar interaction and machine learning to sharpen perceptual-motor skills in athletes and to support rehabilitation in clinical populations.
Projects
All projects
SimulKick, AR penalty kicks
Real balls, real goal, holographic goalkeeper: training players to redirect their kick.
−120 ms redirection threshold after 10 sessions (−28%)
- Slap-shot simulatorPersonalised VR training of the ice hockey slap shot.
- Visual–kinesthetic integration in locomotionDoes what we see change how fast we feel we are running?
- Goalkeepers' perceptual strategies for the penalty kickWhere expert goalkeepers look, and what it tells them.
- Fall prevention and detection in older adultsAmbient sensing at home to spot fall risk before the fall.
Inside the lab
24 OptiTrack cameras watch an 8 × 6 m volume 360 times a second. Around them: a rear-projection screen, a psychophysics set-up with eye tracking, and Pimax, Varjo, HTC Vive and HoloLens headsets.
See the facilities- PressOur VR training for ice hockey players on La Télé, Info Fribourg
- PressThe ice hockey study covered by RTS, SwissInfo, Radio Freiburg and the Freiburger Nachrichten
- PaperPerceptual training in ice hockey: bridging the eyes-puck gap using virtual reality, in Sports Medicine – Open
- AwardZigZag, adaptive document image binarization, wins the Best Paper Award at ACM DocEng 2024
- PressThe Economist on SimulKick: the secret to taking better penalties
- PaperIt's not all in your feet: SimulKick in The Innovation
Our work has been covered by La Télé, Radio Freiburg, Freiburger Nachrichten, RTS, Unifr News, SwissInfo, Bluewin, MyScience, Tio.ch, La Liberté, ArcInfo, The Economist, SRF and Frapp.
Work with us
We supervise Master's theses on motion capture, virtual and augmented reality, and perceptual-motor training, often with clubs and athletes. We also welcome research collaborations and requests to use the lab.
- Address
- Boulevard de Pérolles 90, 1700 Fribourg, Switzerland
Open the map - Team
- Meet the members